


Titanic - The Heart of the Ocean

by HendyGk



Category: Frozen (2013), Tangled (2010)
Genre: F/F, Fluff and Angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-14
Updated: 2016-01-14
Packaged: 2018-03-12 10:14:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 13
Words: 38,627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3352805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HendyGk/pseuds/HendyGk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Titanic was called the "Ship of Dreams", and it was. It really was. [Elsanna (no-incest), Au! Titanic]</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Ghost Ship

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [Titanic - Il cuore dell'oceano](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/98198) by Hendy. 



If there is one thing Kristoff Bjorgman was proud of, it was certainly his work. Not many people could claim to be successful treasure hunters. He was famous in most of the USA and in other countries in the world for searching and discovering valuables of sunken ships. For example, he took the rights for the recovery of some Spanish gold which was also his most famous discovery at the moment.

But he didn’t know that shortly after he would have in hand the testimony of a sensational story, that carried the report of an overwhelming and priceless love, occurred no less than in the largest and most luxurious passenger liner of the world: the Titanic.

*

“We should be almost there. It should enter our field of view soon.”

That could have been the most important diving in Kristoff’s life, maybe in history too.

He had been obsessed by the idea of recovery a particular diamond, that was said to be lost in the depths of the Titanic wreck, for three long years. That diamond was presumably purchased by a wealthy business man called Hans Southern; he was a passenger of the Titanic when it sank, but he was also the former owner of the diamond necklace before he presented it to his former girlfriend, Elsa.

Kristoff and his crew had ventured into the depths in search of the ship with special submarines. They made a lot of expeditions, checking all the place outside of the Titanic in a radius of 50 meters; then they moved to the interior of the ship. Unfortunately not all areas were easily accessible so they had to get particular remote-controlled robots with special cameras for the exploration of the interior. Their contribution was really useful because they permitted to identify the designated area to the private suites of the liner. 

The purpose of the diving was going inside the suite where Southern and his girlfriend lodged and recover as more valuables they could.

"Let's get close to the bow." He ordered.

The familiar sight of that colossus was just ahead of him. Tons and tons of steel at the bottom of the ocean, ravaged by the rust, underwater currents and marine microorganisms. 

Kristoff, who was looking out the porthole of the submarine in order to give indications on the movements, stepped away and took the camera he carried with him. He was used to record all their expeditions, both as a real evidence of what was happening and as a reminder of the experiences that they were living down there. Many of these videos simply documented general information, while others were real statements of sensational and unexpected discoveries. 

Kristoff hoped with all his heart that the video of today belonged in the last category.

"Ok, be quiet everyone, please. We record." He warned. 

He pressed the Rec button, pointing the camera at himself and then at the external scenery, talking with theatrical voice.

"Seeing her coming out of the darkness like a ghost ship always makes me a certain effect. It's anguishing to see the wreck of the great ship lying here where she landed at 2.30 in the morning of April 15, 1912 after her relentless sink to the depths."

A crew member next to him laughed loudly, gaining a glare from the blonde guy.

"What a bullshit, boss!" He said, cackling.  
"Sven, you've ruined the atmosphere!"

Sven Reindeer was, in short, Kristoff’s best friend and adventure companion. His short brown hair and dark brown eyes gave him a rather youthful appearance, although lately he was overdoing with canned and junk food, which made him gain a few pounds weight. 

The two had met in high school and since then they had never separated. Sven had attended all Kristoff’s shipments and loved to tease his best friend. And Kristoff was aware of this. But, after all, Sven was also one of the most capable in his work and right now, he would have been crucial.

He would have himself driven the robot that they would have released in a few minutes to enter the rooms of the Titanic.

Sven was Sven, and to get upset would be useless.

Kristoff began to wander among the various portholes with the camera in his hand, giving some information about coordinates, depth, water pressure and other stuff.

"That's enough, stop with those bullshits. Prepare the robot and put it down where it was last time. It's time to start with the cool stuff."  
"Do you think today is the big day? " Sven asked   
"I hope so, mate. We just have to find it out! Come on, go get the commands."

After that Sven took his time to get ready. 

Another member of the crew gave the OK for the start and the robot was released. Kristoff was next to Sven, where a screen showed everything that the robot was able to see.

"Now remember, Sven: advance slowly. Keep your eyes open and pay attention."  
"Yeah, yeah, I'm not a beginner, you know..."   
"No, no , you are not! You're the best, the better most, I mean, the most better, I mean… wait, what?"  
"Kristoff, I know you're nervous, relax! Let's do this and then we will open up a bottle of champagne, ok?"

Kristoff, now beet-red, could just approve that idea. He always tended to ramble when he was nervous. He took a deep breath to calm himself down and then he returned to focus on the screen.

"So, you know where you have to go. First of all, go down and beyond the first class areas. We must enter the Deck B."

Sven got started immediately.

His control was amazing.

From the screen they could see a lot of moldy, broken and without any evident value items. A lot of junk occupied floors. 

The robot overcame unhinged doors, broken windows, a dining room where there were still remnants of a destroyed piano, came down the stairs and finally, finally after what seemed like an eternity to Kristoff, it passed a corner: they found themselves in front of the entrance of Southern’s suite.

"Be careful not to bump, watch it. Watch it... "  
"I see it. It's everything under control. Just chill, boss."

The entrance was just big enough to let enter the robot, but once inside, the work was done. 

Sven wiped the sweat from his forehead and began to scour the area. 

The room inside was unrecognizable, its old splendor was just a distant memory. Now it had become only the home of fish and bacteria. Some furniture was still standing, a lot of items, probably the contents of suitcases and luggage, were scattered here and there. An half destroyed bed was located in a corner, as the only visible sign that once it had been a bedroom, while wooden planks covered the floor.

A plank in particular caught Kristoff attention, as it seemed to rest on something. 

Kristoff heart started to beat wildly. 

They had never gone that far. 

And maybe what he was looking for so passionately for years, was right there at his fingertips.

"They could have tidied up a little before leaving the ship." Sven joked.  
"Get closer to that plank. That one on the right. There's something…"

Sven approached the robot to the point that Kristoff had noticed, stopping at half a meter from it. 

"Do you think you've found something?"  
"I want to see what’s underneath. Get it out of the way."

Once the controller was extended to mechanical arms, Sven got to work.

"Take it easy. If it breaks we won't be able to remove it." Kristoff warned him.

But Sven didn't need any help or advice. Shortly afterwards he managed to take the plank out of the way, scaring away two fishes that had hide under it. 

As soon as the robot turned to see what there was under the plank, Kristoff held his breath.

In front of them, they saw a square box, apparently made of metal, which was still unopened and in perfect conditions, omitting the amount of rust that covered it. 

A strongbox. 

Kristoff and Sven couldn't help but smile at the sight.

"How about that, boss!"

All that Kristoff could say was: "Prepare the champagne, mate."


	2. The Woman In The Picture

Kristoff’s happiness was really contagious. The return to the base was one of the most cheerful of all time and it surpassed even the joy of Spanish gold discovery. The entire crew chattered and laughed, already looking forward to the hangover that would follow after the opening of the strongbox. 

Once back, Kristoff was greeted as a hero in the bridge. The team that had remained at the base greeted him, giving him pats on the shoulder and yelling things like “Who is the best man of the world?", "We did it!" and "You are awesome , boss!". All of that only served to increase Kristoff joy, in addition to the redness of his face, although he blamed it on the heat of that beautiful spring day and on the sun beating upon them. 

As soon as he freed himself from his colleagues, he hurried to observe the recovery of the safe. They used some cables suitable for the recovery that managed to bring it out shortly after their arrival. Its reemergence, after nearly 85 years, was greeted with many applauses and touched the blond guy.

"I may cry. " He said, in a whisper.

Sven, who didn’t left his side since the surfacing, looked at the sky. His companion had always been very sensitive. The first time that the name 'Kristopher Bjorgman' emerged in the local newspaper with the eulogies for the discovery of some personal effects of a duke of '700, the young man busted into tears and he calmed down only after drinking a couple of camomile tea and a glass of gin. His happiness hit the roof and he didn't blink at the fact that his name had been misspelled. The article was obviously framed and even today (Sven knew it well ) when Kristoff passed near it, he wiped a fugitive tear.

"Here. Take this." He handed him a tissue. Kristoff blew his nose loudly.

The safe was placed on the deck and immediately surrounded by specialized staff, who began working to open it and to reveal its contents. The sound of their chainsaws hung over the whispering of the present, too much excited to utter more than a few bumpy words. 

Kristoff took a deep breath, savoring the smell of salt air and fresh air around him. His heart was beating so fast that he was surprised no one else could hear it. He turned to Sven who had his eyes fixed on the safe, just as anxious as he was, with the bottle of champagne ready in his hand. 

When the sound of saws stopped, he turned his head with a pretty strong twitch, ignoring the sudden pain in his neck. The technicians tied a metal hook to the box and began to yank it hard until they finally managed to unhinge it.

The safe was opened.

Without wasting time, Sven uncorked the bottle, greeted by cheers and other excitement screams, while Kristoff approached in a hurry and held his breath again. 

From the case began to come out a certain amount of water and dirt. Along with them, there were also what looked like ruined sheets and a smaller box that, in a few seconds, Kristoff identified as a sketchbook. 

He bowed and began to rummage through the compartments of the safe, removing dirt, mud and the remains of the other paper sheets. He kept searching intensely with growing anxiety, until he reached the top shelf.

It was empty.

Kristoff couldn't understand. It had to be there, he was absolutely certain!

But what appeared to be a dive that would have changed history, apparently turned out to be just a big failure and a waste of resources. 

He swore.

"It isn't here." He managed to say.

Sven went immediately next to him, shocked, looking for it too. But the hopes were gone. With his dirty, wet and smelly hands, he rest kneeling on the ground, stunned.

"No diamond uh?" Said Sven after checking himself. 

And trying to ease the tension, he said: "You know, actually it's not our worst dive. Do you remember when we recovered another sealed canister and the only thing we found inside was that crabby crab? I'm still wondering how it had managed to get in. I wanted to keep it as a pet, but you've throw it in the sea. They should make a new Olympic sport, something like "The Shot Crab". I had never seen anything flying so far."  
"Sven, if you don't want to be thrown yourself into the sea, I would recommend you to shut up."

Frustrated, he got up. 

The team brought the contents of the safe inside, while Kristoff allowed himself a cigarette and a black coffee. After all, he wasn't so sure that the diamond was there. It was just the most obvious thing to think. It could be in a thousand of other unexplored places: among the debris of the suite, in the room next door, in some other safe... in the stomach of some fish... no, he had to be positive. 

Once he had calmed down, he went back into the cabin and joined the others. 

He didn't have time for making a few steps inside the cabin that suddenly something caught his attention. A member of his crew was examining the sketchbook they had just found. One of the drawings he was trying to bring to light showed a woman, apparently naked and hand-drawn with crayons, wearing…

No, it couldn't be true.

"Let me see that!" He said, almost shouting, coming closer.

The man, confused, stepped aside to give Kristoff a better view. 

She was wearing a heart-shaped necklace that he would have recognized anywhere, even with his eyes closed. 

He began to search in the pockets of the jeans he was wearing, where he retrieved a crumpled sheet; he opened it and looked at it with vigor, revealing the photo of a blue diamond. He compared it with the necklace in front of him, gasping, and... 

"Holy Reindeer. It's him." 

The unmistakable fifty-six carat diamond he was so desperately trying to recover for three years. 

Below in the drawing, there was written a date: '14th April 1912 '. 

There were no more doubts. 

"It's the Heart Of The Ocean."

*

Meanwhile, in California, an elderly lady was sitting on the porch, working with ceramics. The only sounds were produced by the machine she used to work. In the background, there was also a faint chirping that came from outside and the unheard sound of the TV in the living room next door.

A light breeze ruffled her white and smooth hair while the scent of spring pinched her nose. In the piece of furniture near the TV, there was a series of photographs. The first picture looked very old: it was black and white and it portrayed a young woman sitting on a chair. The woman had light hair, probably blond, and she was composed sitting with her back straight and a slight smile on her face. Next there was another one, just as old, of a family. From their clothes it could be deduced that they came from a high-class ambience. Behind them there were another couple of photographs, in color, much more recent, where an elderly woman was next to some people, probably the children and grandchildren. The same old woman sitting on the veranda next there. She was so focused on her work that she didn't hear a young woman approaching her, holding a porcelain cup.

"Granny Elsa, I brought the tea." 

Elsa almost startled at the sound of the voice of her niece, a youngster who had inherited the beauty of the light-haired woman of the photo. 

"Oh thank you, dear Joan." Elsa thanked. 

Joan had platinum blonde hair, blue eyes like ice, identical to those of the grandmother. Her body was so perfect that it seemed to have been carved.

Now that Elsa attention had moved to her niece and the cup of tea, her ears could easily perceive the words audible from television. It broadcasted a special edition of the newscast that apparently was talking about something dealing with treasures. 

"The well-known treasure hunter, Kristoff Bjorgman, has decided to reach the most famous shipwreck of all, the Titanic." 

As soon as she heard " Titanic ", Elsa almost dropped the cup from which he had just sipped a bit of the hot drink. 

She got up quickly, or at least as fast as the age could allowed her, and she approach the TV in the living room, leaning on her walking stick.

A young blond haired with dirty and brown eyed, to all appearances quite muscular, was talking on the TV. 

"Of course, everyone knows the events of the Titanic and his history. The nobility of the orchestra playing until the end and so on. But what I'm interested in are the untold things, the secrets locked deep inside the hull of Titanic." 

Elsa move came to the attention of the niece, who approached her.

"What's the matter?"   
"Turn that up, dear."  
"I'm surrounded by valuable experts. Take a look at what we found just today: a piece of paper that’s been under water for 84 years!"

The TV showed a drawing of a naked woman lying on a couch; she was wearing an heart-shaped necklace. The words continued to flow, but her concentration was all on that picture. 

That stretch, that figure, that sketch... How could it survive? Yet there it was. Unmistakable. Her legs began to tremble. 

"I'll be damned." She said.

She would have to see it with her own eyes. At all costs.

*

In the evening, Kristoff prepared himself for a final quick dive into the abyss depths. There were still a few preparations to be done, but before he could even think to provide the finishing touches, Sven came toward him, calling his name.

"Kristoff! There is a satellite call for you!"  
"What? But we're about to dive!"  
"I know this boss, but trust me, you can't lose it."

He puffed upset, but he couldn't do anything else but getting to the deck, where the phone was. 

When he took it up, Sven warned him. 

"Speak loudly, she's kind of old." 

Kristoff snorted again, looking up to the sky and bringing the receiver to his ear. 

"I'm Kristoff Bjorgman. How can I help you, Mrs..."  
"Calvert, Elsa Calvert." Sven came in his aid.  
" ... Mrs. Calvert?"

From the receiver a hoarse but cocky voice spoke.

"I was just wondering if you've already found the Heart of the Ocean."

At this Kristoff 's eyes widened. He looked at Sven, shocked. Sven replied with a wink and a look that was saying '”I told you that it was important”.

"All right, Elsa. You have my attention. Can you tell us who the woman in the picture is?"

What Kristoff heard was so unexpected that it could not even seem a lie.

“Oh yes. The woman in the picture is me."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! I've decided to post two chapters in the same day in order to go hand in hand with the publication on FF.net.  
> However, next chapter will follow the normal planning! ;)
> 
> So, see you next month and thanks for reading!
> 
> Tumblr contact: bibinohendy


	3. Reflections Of The Past

Impatient. This is the word that could best describe Kristoff in that moment: he was pacing the deck and muttering to himself and the few times he stopped walking, he just tapped his foot to the ground. The crewmembers who had crossed him could have claimed that his supply of cigarettes was about to be put to test. Moreover, he needed more attempts to light one because of the trembling and sweating of his hands and this certainly didn't help his anxiety, which was already quite high.

The conversation with Elsa Calvert kept playing in his head. Elsa had clearly named the Heart of the Ocean, and this was a shock itself. But she had also claimed to be the woman of the portrait.  
It was a joke.  
It had to be. 

But he would have to make sure of it. 

If it was true, the amount of informations that he could obtain would have been incalculable and quite valuable for the discovery of the diamond. The lady then had expressed a desire to see the portrait. Obviously if he wanted to test her honesty, he would have to come face to face, so why couldn’t he seize the opportunity and invite her on board? Kristoff had kindly offered to arrange their meeting in a few days, providing a private helicopter for her arrival to the ship. 

And today was the day, and this could explain Kristoff agitation. 

In the previous days the dives had continued: they had managed to retrieve some belongings inside the suite of Southern including a chipped mirror, an old music box, a comb and some hair clips. All of them were very old, pretty damaged (with the possible exception of the hair clips) and useless.

No trace of the diamond. 

Since the day of the call, everything had changed and Kristoff‘s attention had been completely taken. Today would have been the most important day. Unless it would have turned out to be a joke. 

Kristoff was facing another cigarette when Sven reached him. 

"Are you enjoying the sea air, boss?"

Kristoff grunted in response.

"You're being very mature today. Someone got up on the wrong side of the bed?"  
"Stop it. Did you come here to make fun of me or do you have any news for me?"  
"Actually I found something."

This seemed to upset Kristoff. The blond guy had instructed his partner to seek information about Elsa Calvert in order to have an overall picture of whom they would have met. The research had kept Sven in front of a computer screen for hours. But apparently it was worth it. Neither of them wanted to waste time with an impostor.

"Well…" Sven began "As we had already discovered thanks to the informations about Hans Southern, there was a woman named Elsa Arendelle aboard the Titanic that should have been passed away at the age of seventeen, when it sank, right?"  
"Yup." Kristoff nodded.  
"If she had lived, she’d be over an hundred years old by now!"  
"One hundred and one, actually..."  
"Do you want to hear what I have to say, or what?" Sven said, irritated; he didn't want to be interrupted.

Kristoff raised his hands in surrender.  
"Sorry, sorry, carry on."  
"In the boarding records there is no other woman named 'Elsa'. This brings us to a couple of assumptions. The first is that Elsa Arendelle and Elsa Calvert are the same person. The second is that Elsa Calvert had managed to infiltrate into the ship without a ticket, but with the security level of the boarding, it's pretty absurd, and how she became aware of the necklace is still unknown... Third option, she's just a damned liar looking for money or free publicity, or whatever. An exact copy of the end of that Russian woman’s story, Anesthesia.  
"Well none of us want another Anastasia, I guess. Were you able to go back to the past of Calvert?"  
"Apparently, when she was young, around twenty years old, she was an actress. She played a few minor roles in some production in America but at the time her name was 'Elsa Dawson'. Later she met this Calvert guy, they got married, they moved to California, where they had a couple of children, and now puff, here they are. I couldn't find anything else."  
"What I don't understand,” Kristoff began to say “is how did she know of the diamond.Everybody who knows about the diamond is supposed to be dead."  
"And who are we? The zombies next door?" Sven joked.

But Kristoff didn't heard him. Now he was immersed in another wave of thoughts. Who was this Elsa Calvert for real? Was she actually the woman of the portrait? And what about the Heart of the Ocean?  
His brooding was however stopped almost immediately by the sound of a helicopter in the distance. He ran onto the ship's rail and leaned out as much as possible to see.

Someone shouted, "They're inbound." And then he recognized the emblem of their base. They were actually coming. 

He briskly walked to the area used for landing, ready to welcome them, with Sven next to him. As he got close, the noise became deafening. Although he was used to it, he always find it irritating.  
As the helicopter came down, the wind became stronger and Kristoff had to stop brushing his hair and he let them flutter. Sven, for his part, was quite at ease. 

When the helicopter reached the ground, its door opened and they were greeted by the most bizarre visions: suitcases. A multitude. Some men were carrying them, but a few of those suitcases were so large that they hid them and they give the impression that the baggage had sprouted legs and walked toward them all alone.

After that more than a dozen bags had been downloaded, the men set down the passengers: the first to get off of it was an elderly woman with a cane and straight, shiny white hair, blue eyes and a body that appeared to be very fragile. She was wearing a blue sweater and pants in black tint. On her shoulders there was a white handmade shawl. 

Sven could not resist and whispered to Kristoff: "Well, she actually looks soooo old. This is a point in her favour, isn’t it?"

Kristoff didn't answer. His attention was paid to the second passenger who got out. A woman with platinum blonde hair, pulled back in a chignon, who was helping the old lady by taking her by her arm. Their eyes were the same color and she was wearing a bottle-green shirt combined with a pair of skinny jeans that enhanced her perfect shape. 

Sven had to shake his hand in front of Kristoff’s eyes to awake him from his daydream. Kristoff blinked a few times and closed his mouth that he hadn't realized he had opened, and then he walked over to the two ladies, who were coming to meet him, focusing his gaze to the younger one.

He held out his hand and spoke.  
"I-I- I'm Kristopher Bjorgman... I mean Kristoff, Kristoff Bjorgman, not Kristopher... would... would you like to date me?"

Sven punched him in the arm. But the damage had already been done and Kristoff skin was now back in his usual red-pepper tone. On the other hand the girl blushed slightly and put his hand to his mouth to cover his laughter.

"Adorable." Kristoff thought. 

Sven intervened to his aid.

"I'm sorry for my friend, he hasn't slept much last night. My name is Sven Reindeer, and as he tried to say before, he's Kristoff Bjorgman, and we will be your companions for the moment. Welcome to our ship. It 'a pleasure to meet you. "And he held out his hand.

The white-haired woman held out her hand in turn and introduced herself.

"I'm Elsa Calvert, it's a pleasure to meet you too. And she…"she said, pointing to the other girl "... is my niece, Joan. She was kind enough to accompany me, she's taking care of me in these days."  
"Nice to meet you" Joan said, smiling excitedly to the two.  
"I think it's time to show you your accommodation. Am I right, Kristoff?"

Kristoff, who was lost again in his dreams, woke up slightly at the sound of his name.

"The accommodations. Sure. This way, ladies."

Then they accompanied them. When they arrived at their destination, their cabin had already been occupied by their suitcases.

"I hope you enjoy it." Kristoff said in an attempt to overcome the previous bad impression.  
"Don't worry. We will get used. " Elsa said  
"Well, we'll come back to check again later." Sven added.

The two companions were ready to leave when Joan said with a smile "See you later and thanks Kristopher”, winking after pronouncing his name. 

Then the cabin door closed.

Kristoff had never been so happy to be called by the wrong name, and the only thing he managed to say was just an unheard:

"It's Kristoff."

*

"Is there something I should know between you and the blond guy?"  
"What? Granny! "

Elsa laughed at seeing her niece blushing like that and she put her hand in front of her mouth, in a perfect imitation of how the girl had laughed previously. Joan had always been a very good company, though she was sorry that she had to spend time with an old woman like her. Of course, this made her very happy but she also regretted it a bit.  
The two ladies were setting up their things. Carrying around as many things as they could was an old habit of their family: it made them feel at home. The cabin was quite comfortable after all. The scent of the sea passed through the small cracks on the porthole and they could hear the waves crashing against the ship. 

Sure, it wasn't California with its immaculate landscapes, but they had to admit that it was pretty.

Elsa had never thought she would have set foot on a ship again, no matter it was a research vessel or a luxury ocean liner, and in addition, she didn't think she'd have been back in those waters. 

Those waters. 

They brought a lot of memories with them. Just the thought that under them there was the Titanic was enough to make her shiver. The trip on the Titanic had changed her, she could not deny it. It seemed an eternity since she was boarding, puffing and criticizing everything that was on the way, hating her life so hard. But now she could see the beauty in everything and appreciate every single moment. And this was just because of...

A loud knock on took her back from her thoughts. Joan answered with a soft 'Yes?' and she opened the door, revealing their companions, Kristoff and…Len? Sen? Something like that.

"Is everything alright?" Sven asked.

Elsa leaned the last frame in her hand and she turned to face them and responded.

"Yes, sure. Thanks Len."

He saw Kristoff grin a moment, without understanding the reason, before start talking in a serious way.

"Can I get you anything? Is there anything you’d like?"

For this Elsa already had an answer. She was here for that, after all, she hadn't certainly flown from California to have a picnic on the deck of a ship. He cleared her throat.

"Yes. I would like to see my drawing, please."

The two men accompanied them in the room of the portrait. The journey was not long and Elsa couldn't help but being grateful. An hundred years weren't few and the weight of an old age was becoming pretty hard to endure.  
When they entered, they got closer to a glass case. Inside it there was a sheet of paper. 

On it there was a drawing of a woman and Elsa could already feel his legs become weak at the sight.

The woman had been portrayed with a black crayon on white paper, yellowed probably by time spent in the water. Her hair was loose and it was leaning on her bare shoulders. The neck was adorned with a diamond necklace and the lower part of the body was hidden by a veil that left the legs and feet discovered. A hand was resting in his hair while the other arm was laying on the pillow.

In the bottom right someone had placed a date and a letter. It was an unmistakable 'A', a bit 'faded, with the left corner slightly curled and the right corner that curled to form a sort of slot which replaced the original dash. 

The signature of the author.

"Her signature." Elsa thought.

Here it is, in front of her eyes, the proof tha She had existed, she really did, that her warm hand had once moved on that paper, drawing with crayons those lines, those shadows, that portrait. 

Closing her eyes she would have vowed to see her again.

Her.

With her blue-sea eyes, strawberry blonde hair, a freckled face.

Being in front of that drawing again was a miracle.

Lost in her thoughts didn't realize that Kristoff had started talking and she began to listen.

"Louis XVI wore a fabulous stone that was called the Blue Diamond of the Crown. It disappeared in 1792 after the death of Louis. According to some sources, the diamond crown had been recut into a heart-like shape that became known as the 'Heart of the Ocean'. Today it would have an extremely high value."

Kristoff showed her the pictures of the diamond but she knew what he was talking about.

"It was very heavy." Elsa said. "I only wore it once time, for this portrait."  
"You actually think this is you, Granma?"

Elsa seemed offended.

"Of course! Even if I’m one hundred and two I don't invent things. And look, don’t I look like her a little? I always told your father that you were my exact copy, two drops of water!"

This statement, Elsa noticed, impressed so much the audience that they began to compare the drawing with Joan, causing a slight redness in the cheeks of the girl. 

Kristoff then returned to talk about the necklace.

"I tracked it down through insurance records. A family had bought the diamond in absolute secrecy and when it sank with the ship, they had claimed it. Do you have any idea who the claimant was, Mrs. Elsa?"  
"I guess someone named Southern." she replied without a moment of hesitation.  
"Exactly!" Kristoff almost screamed. 

He was on cloud nine. 

"The necklace was given to Hans Southern who bought it for his girlfriend. You."  
"If it is true that you're that woman ..." Sven added in a whisper, "... this means that the necklace ..."

Joan, who had lost the thread of the conversation, interrupted them.

"What does this all mean?"  
"This means ..." Kristoff said, with a twinkle in his eyes "... that if Elsa Calvert and Elsa Arendelle are the same person, your grandmother was wearing that necklace the day the Titanic sank, and this is shown by the portrait. Do you see the date on the bottom? April 14, 1912." 

He took a big breath and then he said, in a booming voice. 

"So, Elsa, you should know where the diamond ended up. This makes you my new best friend! " Kristoff concluded.

Sven, hearing this, seemed slightly irritated.

"I thought I was your best friend!"

Meanwhile, Elsa was lost again in her thoughts. Kristoff’s last sentence, along with the color of his eyes (which Elsa realized to be brown) triggered a memory. 

She remembered the author of the portrait, and she thought she heard her melodic voice saying:

"Your eyes are not brown. They are chocolate brown! There's a difference! And this does make you my best friend!".

She had almost forgotten this memory and she immediately felt nostalgic. A small tear rolled unnoticed on her cheek but it was wiped away immediately.

Kristoff and Sven then directed their glances to a nearby table where there were some items. Kristoff was saying something but he wasn't listening to her, he was probably too immersed in the description of the recovery of these objects. A rectangular box aroused her interest. It was carved in white wood, slightly musty at its sides, and, on the surface, there was engraved a flower, a crocus for accuracy, the official crest of the Arendelle’s.

Another memory began to take shape in her mind: someone took her side and approached her, in a corner a music box was playing a sweet melody that filled the room, her nose was greeted by the sweet scent of flowers. They were swinging, one close to the other…

"So? Are you ready to tell us your story and to go back to Titanic? "

Her thoughts were rudely interrupted by Kristoff – again. She was not sure if she should blame the blond guy to block the most interesting moments of her memories in that way or if she had to blame herself for daydreaming. In any case, she smiled at him and firmly stated:

"Yes, I'm ready. "


	4. Southampton

“Yes, I’m ready.”

A silence full of tension and excitement rose in the cabin. Neither Kristoff nor Sven had never thought to reach that source of information and it was clearly painted on their faces. Kristoff ran out of the room and returned just a moment later with a tape recorder in his hand. Joan, on the other hand, was clearly thrilled.

Elsa approached to a chair and then sat down with a sigh. It would have been a long story and she had never told anyone, not even to her husband. To start it was better if she put herself comfortable.

The others followed his example.

She closed her eyes for a moment, preparing for what she was about to tell: for them, it would probably have been an exciting story, one of those stories that could have become a film. But for her it was something else. Those memories were the best she had ever had . And the most painful, too.

"It’s been eighty-four years-"  
"Oh, don't worry. Just try to remember what you-"

The deadly look that Elsa gave to Kristoff was enough to make him understand that she didn't want to be interrupted. Kristoff snuggle in his chair and Elsa resumed her story.

"It’s been eighty-four years and I can still smell the fresh paint. The china had never been used. The sheets had never been slept in. Titanic was called the ship of dreams. And it was. It really was."

And so she began telling her story, of those days when she felt trapped, of how she met someone who let her be herself, how she learned to make her own choices, how the journey of the Titanic had changed her life and how she learned to love.

To love her.

To love Anna.

*

The port of Southampton had never been so crowded. The city, located in the county of Hampshire in the UK, was a famous port for ocean liners that wanted to reach North America, but that day everyone's attention wasn't directed on some occasional passing ship. Everyone was admiring the magnificent of the largest and most luxurious ocean liner in the world: the unsinkable Titanic. 

The crowd was in trepidation. Above the bustle, there were only surprised shouts and exclamations that cheered the ship:   
"I've never seen such a big ship!"  
"It's wonderful!"  
"A masterpiece!"

Children ran back and forth, passing through the midst of file storage, working sailors and people of all ages in line, waiting to get into the huge ship. 

Several walkways flanked the Titanic in order to allow passengers to enter the designated departments. They were sorted according to the class assigned to the ticket and those who had already passed the checks, reached the various decks to give a final farewell to the British port and to their loved ones on the ground.

A series of horns announced the arrival of a couple of cars that entered the port making their way through the crowd. 

You could tell that they belonged to some lord or high class noble at first glance, and this not only because of the fact that most of the cars were carrying huge amounts of bags and luggage. 

The driver of the first car, dressed in a black and white jacket, stopped the car and went to open the door to the passengers inside.

Some people had stopped beside him to watch, curious of who could be inside, and when the door opened, the first thing they saw was a white glove, probably silk or some other expensive fabric, lay down on the hand of the driver.   
Afterwards, one of the most beautiful women ever seen get out from the car, standing in all her grace. 

She wore a dark blue suit that ended with a long skirt embroidered in black at the base that barely covered the knees. She wore also a coupled shawl of the same color, with the same blacks edges, that let see the long-sleeved gown and white shirt collar. 

The platinum blonde hair stood out among the people and other people stopped to admire the beauty of that young woman.

Elsa, on the other hand, didn't seem interested in the attention she was receiving from them, and indeed, she repaid them with a steely indifference. 

She held her shoulders high and her back rigorously straight. She also seemed insensitive to the smell of salt air that flooded the air of the dock and to the festive air that reigned. 

The only thing that seemed to affect her was: 

"What a fuss. I don't understand why they have to scream so much." She snorted.

She looked up and watched the Titanic with skepticism.

"It's nothing special." She muttered.  
"I thought that at least the view of the Titanic would have change your ice heart, my dear Elsa, but I see that even the great colossus can’t thaw it." A male voice said.

Elsa, who didn't expect an answer, jolted slightly but didn't reply to the comment. 

The man who had just spoken was the future girl's fiancé, Hans Southern, who had just got out of the car.   
He was a very charming and gallant rich man dressed in a blue coat with a black collar, combined to suit Elsa, and a pair of dark pants. On his head he wore a cylindrical hat of the same color of his pants, which made him visible only the sideburns of his auburn hair. His green eyes stood out in contrast with his fair and slender skin, a perfect mix that would have hypnotized who looked at him.

Before Hans could notice the lack of an answer, another lady with the same features of Elsa came from behind them. She certainly was the girl's mother. She had her same behavior and, combined with her emerald green dress, she carried a white umbrella to cover herself from the sun of that wonderful April day. 

Hans approached her.

"Your daughter is far too difficult to impress, Idun"

Idun replied with a chuckle but she immediately changed the subject.

"So this is the ship they say is unsinkable."  
"The one and only! Nothing and no one could sink this ship."

But Elsa wasn't paying attention to them. She was too focused on wondering how so many people could find enchanting and breathtaking a similar boat. Not to mention how loudly they expressed their appreciation. 

She would have preferred to shut herself in her room, reading some art or adventure books, with a cup of good black tea in her hands, rather than being part of such a mess. 

"So, are my ladies ready to go?"

Hans, who had left them for a few minutes to talk with some sailors about the transportation of their luggage, had just returned and took Elsa's mother arm, starting to head towards the ship.

Elsa, accompanied by her maid, followed the couple, thankful that they were before them. 

Idun had the bad habit of never took her eyes off her.

She was always ready to criticize her for her behavior and every mistake that she committed. She wanted only the best, the inaccuracies were not allowed and all that could dent her appearance of noble woman had to be eliminated instantly. Everything had to be perfect. Although this compromised the welfare of someone. 

Hans, on the other hand, used to send her lustful looks that made her sick, and he had complete control over her life. She could not even decide for herself what to eat because he gave her no chance to express any opinion. She was not sure she loved him but she had no choice. 

Her whole life was based on blindly following decisions that others had taken for her. She was like a rat in a cage.

Being out of range from the look of her mother, once in a while, was a relief for the young girl.

As they walked up the gangplank, heading to the largest ship in the world where they had chartered the most luxurious suites available, Elsa diverted her attention from the noisy crowd, the boos that the ship emitted, the light that the harbor radiated, and began to think.

The Titanic was the ship of dreams for everyone else. To her, it was only a slave ship, taking her back to America in chains. 

She was everything a well brought up girl should be. But inside she was screaming and asking for help.

An help that would have never come.

*

The noise of the port was muffled by bare walls of the bar called " Oaken & Sons ". The place was almost completely empty since most of the people were waiting for the departure of the Titanic. However, it usually hadn't many customers: the floor of the bar showed off a thick layer of dirt and dust, the glasses were dirty as the uninviting stains and the tables were not in the best conditions.   
Two things could be considered positive about this place. First of all, the prices were low and the drinks were not even that bad; second, everyone could do their business, illegal or not, without being disturbed. 

The owner, a big man up twice a normal man, was cleaning the tables with a filthy cloth, without uttering a word to anyone. His indifference had attracted over the years a pretty mysterious customers that liked the confidentiality. This saved the bar from bankruptcy and allowed his business to continue.

The only customers at that time were four people sitting in the corner of the bar, struggling with a play of Poker.

The clink of their glasses and the rubbing of the cloth on the tables were the only sounds around them. Four bags was positioned next to each chair, a sign that those people were just passing through and they were ready to leave the country at the end of that game. 

Among them there was only one woman. 

The lady in question had beautiful sea -blue eyes and strawberry blonde hair, braided in two pigtails that lied against her back. Her face was full of freckles and she had a small white streak that started from the head and ended at the far end of the braid that attracted the attention of everyone.

The clothes she wore, however, didn't fit her well. She had second-hand clothes which smelled slightly of old but the girl wasn't afraid to admit it; she even joked about that.   
They consisted in a pair of beige pants with lots of clear braces, a jade green shirt several sizes bigger, and a dark gray, left open, heavy jacket. 

She emanate a light scent of flowers, in contrast to the strong smell of rotten fish and mildew, characteristic of that place. She seemed the most relaxed of everyone, even if a small drop of sweat was forming on her forehead, a sign of the tension that was being created in the air around them. 

The game was now at the end: all the players had bet everything they had and they were about to face the truth with the last hand. The chubby man next to the girl, her partner in the game, approached her whispering into her ear.

"Anna , you're craaaazy!"

Anna smiled in reply. 

It was more like a grimace than a smile and in that moment her eyes seemed to sparkle maliciously. 

"When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose, Olaf." She said, approaching him and then she winked.

Anna was an American girl who loved travelling.  
She had visited many countries including France, Italy, Denmark and Norway. She met Olaf, a chubby boy with brown eyes and dark curly hair, in the last place and since then the two were inseparable. Olaf decided to leave his native land to venture with Anna. The two, with only a few dollars in their pocket and their suitcases full of dreams and ambitions, had visited together a lot of countries, until they arrived in the UK where in that moment were facing that poker game.

Olaf was not very good at gambling. He didn't understand the rules and it wasn't much good at lying and bluffing. His face reflected all his emotion. It could be a great thing for some people, but certainly it was not very useful in such an important hand.

In that moment he was clearly terrified. They had really bet everything they had. 

Their opponents had banked their Titanic’s tickets along with their money, while Anna had staked his precious gold pendant. Olaf knew that if there was one thing that Anna loved most of his life, that was definitely the necklace in question. But Anna was confident, otherwise she wouldn't have bet, and this was enough to reassure the big boy. 

When Anna looked back at her cards, she had already changed expression and her eyes returned alert and focused. Olaf began to yank the scarf around his neck. The clothes of the two adventurers were very similar, except for the scarf and Olaf’s shirt, who was blue with white stripes. The two had got their clothes not long time before, as courtesy of an old lady who had hosted them in her barn for a few days.

Anna didn't overlook to notice the agitation of his companion and realized that she would have to break the tension and put an end to everything. With a single sip, she finished her beer and then she violently put down the mug against the table, causing a crash that shocked the present. 

Their two opponents, two gruff Germans, almost fell off the chair because of the fright.

"Okay, enough lingering. It's the moment of truth." 

Anna looked at the audience with inquiring eyes and sat back in the chair.

"Someone’s life is about to change. Olaf?" 

Olaf showed the cards but Anna knew what she would have found in his hand.

"Nothing ." Anna said. 

Olaf cringed in his chair and sent an apology gaze to Anna, while the two Germans exchanged hopeful looks. Anna continued.

"You, blond guy in glasses." And she pointed the man next to Olaf who showed his cards.

"Not even you, eh?" He grunted in response.

Anna could already feel the sweat running down her spine but again she didn't let it shown up. Drumming her fingers on the table, she turned to the third player who had a thick mane of red hair.

"Your turn red-ish."

Unlike the others, he seemed much more resolute and he showed the cards by giving a certain look at Anna, look that was saying "Let's see who will be the last to laugh". 

Anna sighed heavily, cursing.

"Heck. Two pair." 

Anna eyes became incredulous and sad. She turned to her companion.

"Olaf. I 'm so so so sorry but... " 

Olaf, terrified, pointed his eyes to the floor, without saying anything.

"Oliver, look at me."

Oliver was the name that Anna used to call Olaf when she wanted to be heard all the way down. Oliver was the English version of his name, although he preferred the original. At the sound of his name, said with such force, Olaf looked into her eyes.

"Olaf. I think… I think we should just take our bags and leave... because we-are-going-to-America-on-the-Titanic!!!"

Banging her hand on the table, she showed the cards to the three upset players, showing her play: a straight flush. Olaf looked at her and then stood up, embracing Anna with all his strength. The two fell out of the chair and crashed on the dirty floor, cheering and screaming for joy.

"Anna, I've never loved you so much, you cheeky little brat!"

Anna laughed like never before. She moved Olaf aside who was still upon her and then got up, helping her friend on the ground.

Once standing you could clearly see the difference in height of the two. Anna, though skinny, was almost 5’ inches taller than the boy.

One of the Germans, the blonde with glasses, stood menacingly, stopping the roars of joy of the young but, unexpectedly, he punched his partner. This gave the start to another series of giggles but the second laugh was interrupted by the owner, who approached them.

"Yoo hoo , I think you will not go anywhere!"   
"Wait, what?" Anna said, upset. "Why not?"  
"Titanic go to America, in five minutes."

Anna realized the situation. She cursed again and ran to the table, opening her bag.

"Get a move on, Olaf! We need to hurry, they're leaving without us!"

Olaf started helping her to collect their winnings and then they ran out of the bar as fast as they could with their bags on their shoulders , leaving behind the huge owner, the two Germans who were still fighting and the smell of mold, making their way through the crowd. 

Anna joined hands with Olaf. They passed many parked cars, some playful children and the sailors remained on the ground, heading toward the Titanic. Their legs began to hurt because of how fast they were running but they ignored the pain. 

They saw the first walkway being removed and the panicked. 

"Wait, wait! We are passengers!" She shouted. 

With a last twitch they reached the walkway. The sailors, who apparently had heard their shouts, were waiting for them.

"Have you been through the inspection queue?" One of them asked to the couple.  
"Of course. Anyway I'm American so it's all right, isn’t it? Here are the tickets, can we get on board?"

The sailor aboard stared them for a moment but then he stepped aside, letting them in.

Anna laughed. She couldn't even remember when she had been so happy and her laughter seemed to be contagious because behind her, she could hear Olaf laughing just like her.

And finally Anna was returning home.

Finally she was returning to America.


	5. Deparure

The noise of the third class deck was deafening. Every single person was trying to lean out from the ship to greet acquaintances on the ground, but a couple in particular was looking out only to give a final look at the British port, enjoying the moment.

Anna and Olaf had just been boarded but they didn't stop there for a long time. They thanked the sailor who had stepped aside and walk through the crowd, carrying their luggage with them. The entrance was still full of latecomer passengers and the two didn't certainly want to miss the chance to see the departure from the port. They headed toward the deck following the instructions provided in the corridors. Once they got to their destination, a myriad of people have already approached the side of the ship. They barely managed to find a place for them, but once that Anna leaned out, she began to scream loudly and warmly waving her hand.

"Goodbye! Goodbye!" 

Olaf looked a bit lost.

"Anna , you're doing?" He asked unsure.  
"I'm saying goodbye." 

It was obvious, wasn’t it? Anna smiled.

"But you said there was no one here you knew..."  
"That's true. That’s not the point!" 

Olaf definitely seemed confused now. He decided not to ask more questions and shrugged. Then he appeared in turn, imitating her. 

“Goodbye Great Britain!" 

Anna laughed, amused.

"Just like that Olaf! Goodbye smelly bars!"   
"Goodbye big mountain man!"   
"Goodbye rainy clouds!"  
"Goodbye red telephone boxes!"  
"Goodbye London stars!"

Anna stopped. What Olaf had just said?

"Wait, what? Isn't the sky the same everywhere?"   
"Yes, why?"   
"Have you just screamed 'London stars'?"  
"Yes, why?"

Okay, well. That was Olaf after all. It might be better not to question over that, so she returned to shout greetings more and more strange with him, as the passengers next to them began to wonder if they had drunk too much. The pair looked like brother and sister because of their attitude. And there they were, surprising the people around them and having fun now more than ever, without any concern at all.

With a loud whistle the ship weighed the anchor and began to ripple in the sea, more and more distant from the shore, making the British island smaller as the time passed.   
With a final "All hail to the Queen!" said with one voice, they let themselves slide against the ship's rail and sat down. As the time passed, the place began to empty. The two could hear the voices of the passengers of the first and second class during the departure but when they began to reenter, the silence took their place, leaving them alone. Taking advantage of that, Anna closed her eyes, letting the wind messing up her strawberry-blond hair. The scent of the sea flooded the air, but something else caught her nose: the fresh paint of the ship, the smell of carved wood and...

"Wait, what's this smell?" She thought. She sniffed one more time and, when she understood, she couldn't do anything else but smiling slightly.

"Sleet. Olaf’s scent." 

She wondered how she didn't realize it right away.

The sun was shining behind her eyelids and the sound of the waves and the engines running was quite comforting once that they had accustomed to it. She thought she was lucky not to suffer from seasickness, otherwise it would have been a catastrophe. 

Opening her eyes, Anna finally decided to give a look to the ship. The place was HUGE: the corridor of the deck was quite wide; if two people were stretched out one after the other, they would have been pretty comfortable. The wood used was valuable, with elegant finishes, not to mention its title "The Unsinkable Ship". 

Sure. They had won Titanic tickets with a lucky hand, but Anna would have definitely jumped at the opportunity and enjoyed the trip with Olaf.

Turning to look at him, she saw that he had a smirk full of happiness on his face and he was enjoying the view just like her.

"It's beautiful, isn't it, Olaf?"  
"Yes, it's really nice! I wonder how many snowmen we could build on this deck."

Olaf had a certain obsession with snowmen and warm seasons, which made him even more unique. Anna was sure that Norwegian people were probably all snow and summer lovers, so she wasn't surprised when the boy pulled up the subject 'snowmen', although she admitted her friend could almost being classified an incurable obsessed paranoid.

"Who knows" she replied. 

With a satisfied sigh, she quickly got up and took her huge bag.

“Let’s go to the cabins, O l i v e r.” 

This seemed to shake Olaf from his sleep. He pouted at Anna who smiled playfully at him. 

"My name is Olaf"   
"I'm sure it's Oliver" 

She was teasing. 

"Olaf!"  
"Oliver!"  
"Olaf!"   
"Oliver!"  
"Annaa!"  
"Yes, that's my name."  
"Stop it!"

Olaf’s pout was a wonderful thing in the eyes of the girl, who blew a raspberry and turned back, ready to go down to the cabins when she found herself on the ground, in pain, next to a dark-haired boy.

"Hey!"   
"Watch where you go reddish."

Looking up, she found herself in front of a muscular guy with dark brown hair and eyes, with a strange light goatee. He was wearing a blue vest with a white shirt with long sleeves underneath, dark cream trousers and brown boots. His gaze was bored but when he looked better at Anna, his eyes suddenly lit up. He knelt before her and with a crooked smile and shrunken eyes said: 

"Hi beautiful."

Anna heard muttering something that sounded like "Here comes the smoulder" , but her brain was currently on standby. The goatee man seemed shocked by something and his face showed some disappointment, even if Anna didn't understand why, she was just looking at him weirded.

"Another off day, eh? It's strange my glace did not work. Usually they always do. You're the second one that has resisted. Anyway , tell me, beauty. Are you single? We could have a threesome if you want."

A loud slap echoed on the deck. Anna had his hand raised and was looking murderously at the boy with brown eyes. She got up puffing, took Olaf hand and dragged him away, muttering. Olaf could understand only "What an idiot!", "How dares him" between a snort and another. It took all the way back to the room where they had entered the ship to calm down Anna, but when she realized where her feet had dragged them, she looked around, confused. 

"Olaf , where are our cabins?"

He glanced around, uncertain. 

"I was wondering that, too"   
"Well, check the ticket..."   
"What tickets?"

Anna thought the boy was joking, but looking at his face she understood that he actually had no idea what she meant.

"The tickets Olaf."  
"Oh right..."

However, he was looking at Anna uncertain. The redhead waited for some sign of understanding but...

"No wait , what tickets?"  
"The tickets of the ship that we won at poker!"  
"Oh, yes! The tickets of the ship, the ones that you have won betting our possessions, those tickets, those of the Titanic, the unsinkable ship, the great giant, the largest ship in the world! Those tickets?"

"Yes, those tickets." She said with an irritated tone in her voice, though Olaf did not seem to catch it.  
"Oh!"

The boy seemed actually understand now, in fact he pulled the tickets out of his pocket, where he had carefully arranged them after the entrance, and he studied them carefully.

"It says here G60."  
"Perfect, follow me!"

Olaf followed her confident, humming to himself but as they realized too late, it would have been better not to follow Anna’s instinct who took them in the opposite wing to their destination. But she was not the type to give in easily so, after having took the wrong way for three more times and have reached the engine room of the ship without actually understand how they arrived there, the girl admitted that maybe they could ask for some information. So they did and only five minutes later, they (finally) reached their cabin. It wasn't even far from where they were left.

They didn't knock at the door, thinking that they were the only ones in the cabin, but when the two opened it, they were greeted by...

"Wait, what?" Said Anna .

"Oh, look!” Olaf chuckled. “A frying pan" 

Before them there were a brown boy lying on the ground with a blonde sitting on his stomach, clutching a frying pan. Her arm was raised, ready to strike, but had stopped when the door opened. She had very long golden blonde hair and her bright green eyes met with Anna eyes.

Then Anna’s gaze moved to the mistreated boy. He had a particular annoying goatee and there was the sign of a hand on his left cheek.

“YOU!” Anna screamed.

The boy tried to run away but the blonde girl was still holding firm. A look of realization came off on her face.

"It's her. YOU! You have betrayed me WITH HER!"

And this time the pan struck the hapless boy.

...

"Oh, so that's how it went. However pleasure, my name is Rapunzel and he's-"  
"I'm Flynn Rider" He interrupted.   
"No you're not. His name is Eugene."

The events wheel had definitely changed. Anna and Olaf told the blonde girl about the meeting with that guy, Eugene Flynn or what he was called, and at the end of the story Rapunzel had calmed down and had apologized to Eugene. He showed up a bump on his forehead and an almost purple bad sign of an hand on the cheek. They were sitting on their camp beds, arranged in two bunk beds. Olaf had decided to take over the upper bed and sat on it, listening to the story of the two.

"We're on our honeymoon! Eugene has bought the tickets at the last moment, so he was able to find only those of the third class. Are you on your honeymoon too?"

Olaf began to cackle and Anna joined him.

"Of course not! The brat and me have won tickets to a poker game!"

"Ehi I'm not a brat!"

Rapunzel and Eugene joined to the laughter.

"However I compete for the other team" Anna said winkling to the married couple, who didn't seem to judge the choice. 

Then she stood up and began to unpack her luggage but when she pulled out her few spare clothes, something slipped out of her bag, scattering sheets on the floor. Rapunzel approached her and gave Anna a hand to pick them up when she stopped to observe one of them.

"These are drawings... and they're done very well I might add. Did you made them by yourself?" 

Anna blushed and nodded.

"Anna, they're fantastic! You know, I study art since I was young, even if I paint pictures but this doesn’t matter, we have something in common!"

Anna was astonished.

"Really?!" she nearly screamed.   
"Yes!"  
"Oh!"

The two conjoined their hands and began to giggle, amused. Olaf and Eugene, feeling excluded, looked and shook their heads, muttering: "Women."

Soon they became friends. Anna and Olaf told them about their travels while the married couple started telling how they had known. Apparently Flynn was a thief once, but he stopped when he met Rapunzel.

“Aw, love changes people!" Rapunzel said, with a dreamy voice.  
"How true!" Confirmed Olaf who got out of the bed and joined the others down.   
"Right!" Eugene said slapping a fist on his chest, proudly, and in a whisper, that only Anna felt, he added: 

"Now when I borrow things, I let down the money, just like these tickets of the Titanic."

Anna pretended not to hear.

*

The suites where Elsa, her mother and Hans were staying was called "Royal Suite" and once Elsa went inside, she understood immediately why. The cabins were decorated in Louis XVI style and they included a living room, three bedrooms (two singles and a double), two bathrooms, two wardrobes and a private promenade deck. They were definitely the most elegant of any other liner, they had no rivals. However the three seemed accustomed to such sophistication and didn't show a big surprise, except for Elsa’s maid who looked at everything with growing admiration.

Elsa hadn't took part to the departure of the Titanic. Perhaps she would have liked it or maybe she wouldn't have actually been interested, but in any case she hadn't had any choice. According to Hans, "Noble people shouldn't stay among the mob" so they immediately headed to the suites after entering.

At the moment, Elsa was arranging her things while her boyfriend strutted its riches and its so-called power derived from the money he had in the captain's cabin. The blonde actually was happy about it: a bit of fresh air before the return of the storm was just what she needed.

"Miss, may I put this here?"

Elsa was taking care of the paintings that she had brought with her from home. She loved art and it was the only thing that could blow off her steam and could comfort her in that hell they called life. Her maid was giving her a hand and was holding a Picasso painting, "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon".

"Place it next to the "Jeanne d'Arc", thanks Mel." Said Elsa

Mel was short for Mellow. Her father was the most devoted butler of Arendelle lineage, Sebastian Marsh, although he followed the orders of Hans. Elsa would have been lost without Mel, her only friend, although their friendship had to been kept hidden from the eyes of her mother. 

Her collection of paintings included a lot of quite varied works: Monet, Picasso, Degas, Munch, and so on. 

"Would you like all of them out, miss?"   
"Yes, please. This room is so monotonous and so immeasurably small."  
"Small, Miss?"

Mel looked rather skeptical about that statement.

"Yeah. I'll have to put some pictures of the chairs. It is so small that there it won't be enough space for all of them."

Elsa was thinking about how to solve the problem when Mel interrupted her again.

"Excuse me, may I say something?"

The waitress had probably noticed Elsa concentration and she didn't want to be disruptive. However Elsa didn’t find her friend annoying. She turned to face her, with one of his rare warm smiles.

"Mel, of course you can. What's wrong?"

The smile that Elsa gave her seemed to cheer the girl.

"Well, if I may. What does Mr Southern think of these...?"

Everyone by now knew Elsa passion for the art. It was equally known also the disgust of Hans. He considered it as something useless and a waste of money. Although her mother accepted his passion, Hans had different point of views.

"Are you still struggling with those scribbles, honey?"

There he was, just like to answer the question of Mel and confirm that thought. 

"When you speak about the devil..." thought Elsa.

He came into the cabin with a glass of champagne in hand.

She prepared the fakest voice she could show off and with an amiable tone she spoke. 

"Dear Hans, I doubt you'll ever appreciate art. I, unlike you, have good taste and high class. These paintings are fascinating, more than this "Ship of dreams" or how they call it."

"Here we go, our Ice Queen never changes. Don't you understand, Elsa? You could get any better. All you'll ask will be yours, but you settle for these... these pieces of ruined paper."

At this Elsa had to use all of her self-control for not throwing Hans off the ship, kicking his-. Well that was the idea, but a lady shouldn't think this kind of thing. So again, she wore her mask that she was used to wear since she was born and decided to ignore his comment, pretend not to hear. She walked away with Mel in tow toward another part of the suite to accommodate the other paintings.

She closed the door behind her and leaned against it, letting the framework leaning at her side. She sighed.

"Are you all right, Miss Elsa?"   
"Yeah, sure" 

She nod tiredly.

"That man is horrible."  
"I know Mel, I know."  
"You can't stand him for a whole lifetime, you don't love him!"

Elsa didn't reply. It was true. She didn't love him but...

"I have no choice."

She brought her knees to her chest, holding her head in her hands. Mellow slumped in front of her and put her hand on the shoulder with a sad look on her face.

"There must be something else you can do to solve the problems of Arendelle family."  
"You know my mother. She doesn't want to take the difficult way. Selling her daughter to a man seemed to be easier.”

Arendelle family was facing a severe crisis. Finances were a disaster and they risked bankruptcy any day now. Elsa’s father had died less than a year before, leaving a lot of debts to the two women of the family. They both weren't aware of the debts. Iduun had refused categorically to auction even one of their heirloom and was desperate.

But one day Hans Southern had knocked their door, asking for the hand of Elsa, and which better perspective they had?

Mel didn't know what to say. She knew very well what the situation was. She hated that to death, as much as...

"Dearie, dinner's ready. I'll wait in the dining room for you in five minutes. Don't be late."

...as much as she hated him.

They heard his steps away from the door and Elsa let out another sigh. She looked at her maid who was watching angry at the door.

"I hate him."

The blonde chuckled at this.

"Can I tell you a secret, Mel?"

She nodded.

"I hate him, too." She said winkling.

So she got up, dragging her feet ungracefully, ready to get back in the trap, ready to head to the snake pit.


	6. First Glance

Nothing went wrong during the departure. The Titanic stopped briefly in Queenston where the last passengers boarded and then sailed that evening, to the vast blue expanse in front of it, before the arrival in the New York’s harbor. Among the praises to the Titanic, the cheers of delight for its majesty and the perfect condition for a journey, the second day of the trip began. 

Taking advantage of the good weather, many people decided to hanging out on the deck and enjoy the breeze rather than remain in their cabins or in the interior of the ship. The joy and enthusiasm were contagious and all the problems seemed to have been left to the port during the departure, leaving only the fun and lightheartedness.

This pleasure, however, wasn't granted to everyone.

...

The sun was high in the sky and the clock located in the Grand Staircase of the first class had just stricken lunchtime. Elsa was sitting between Hans and Idun since they insisted to keep an eye on her. She just wanted to lie down in one of the ship deck-chairs and enjoy the wonderful day of April, skipping lunch and being away from her two "supervisors", but of course, how could she, Elsa of the noble race of Arendelle, daughter of Idun, and future wife of a Southern, lose a such important lunch, with such distinguished, boring and pompous guests?

She had spent the previous evening making all the presentations. Hans’s family had sponsored the construction of the Titanic and many extra donation were made in their name for its realization. Thanks to that, Hans was comparable to a God, or at least, he was feeling that way. He had also decided to announce the official engagement with Elsa on the ship, in front of all the noble class belonger, as if that were not enough. Some preparations were yet to be discussed, therefore Elsa was introduced at first to nothing less than the Captain.

Captain Kai Smith was an English naval officer to his last trip before retirement. He had been commanding officer of numerous vessels. He was a kind and friendly person, but unfortunately he could be easily manipulated by a certain amount of gold or the perspective of power. Nevertheless, he was very polite and professional and he also offered to invite them to his cabin for a toast to the 'future couple', as he had called them, in one of the evenings to come.

Her mother then, with some reluctance, introduced her to Mrs. Gerda Brown, or “only Gerda” like she wanted to be called, was one of the few, if not the only, that Elsa found in some ways charming. She seemed to know everyone's thoughts and understand immediately the nature of a person which scared those around her but there was no doubt that she was a beautiful lady with an appreciable character. Her husband had struck gold someplace out west, and they had become incredibly rich. They belonged to what Elsa mother called "new money", and this, more than anything, bothered Idun. The two had known in America and, although Gerda respected the other one and appreciated her company, things were not the same for Idun. Elsa, for her part, found her very pleasant, disgusting her mother prejudice about the "new money".

She was presented to many others included those who had to deal with the construction of the ship from who gave its name to those who had planned and the build it. All of them had two things in common: a thirst for gold and the arrogance. A man in particular drew the girl attention. He was an old man of small stature, with a large pointed nose, a gray mustache and a toupee that rose whenever he made any sudden movement. He was called George Weselton and what the man lacked in stature, was offset by a despicable vanity. Elsa wanted to throw up in disgust.

For the others, the first day had been the most exciting of their lives but for Elsa it had been the most stressful day ever. She had to fake smiles, strain a laugh at those not-so-funny jokes, shake sweaty hands of respectful passengers and keep a good posture. 

She was so tired.

When she finally returned to the cabin, she dropped on the bed, falling asleep before she could even touch the pillow.

 

The worst part was that the lunch of that day seemed to be the perfect copy of the previous and Elsa didn't know how she could resist from getting up and running away.

"She's the largest moving object ever made by the hand of man in all history." Mr Ismay said. 

He was one of gentleman presented to Elsa the night before. Obviously the topic of conversation was always the same: how big was the Titanic, how beautiful was the Titanic, how luxurious was the Titanic, how fast was the Titanic... and if there were some miracle in act and no one talk about that useless boat, they talked about money. 

Money, only money. What ruled the world? Stupid, petty, money.

“Control it. Be the good girl you always had to be.” Elsa encouraged herself.

"Our master shipbuilder, Mr Andrews, an excellent marine engineer, designed it." The man continued.   
"Yes well, I may knocked her together but the idea was yours, Mr. Ismay. Don't be modest!"

That conversation was far from modest in Elsa eyes. They were only there to brag about what they had done to the envy of all, as if it mattered to the others. Their pompous manners were quite disgusting. Even the waiters around them showed some discomfort, but serving a table of such important people and doing their job well, meant a substantial tip and they couldn't lose the opportunity. 

But Elsa couldn’t show any emotion. She tried to focus on something else while maintaining an impassive face, but not even the smell of the various dishes served at nearby tables were able to distract her from the feeling of hatred that was forming inside her. She had to control herself.

"Conceal, don’t feel, don't let them know."

"Mr. Ismay envisioned a steamer so grand in scale that its supremacy would never be challenged. And here she is, willed into solid reality."

The reality, uh? The reality was that they were just a bunch of idiots. That was the reality. Elsa looked up at the sky.

The waiter came to take their bookings. His posture showed clear signs of submission and fear, as if he were in front of some members of the royal house.   
She snorted. She would have liked to tell the waiter to stop acting like a bootlicker, but she had to stop herself when her mother gave her a glare. She cleared her throat and went back to listen them or even better, repeating her mantra to stay quiet.

"What do you want for lunch, sir?" It was Hans turn to answer.  
"Ah, we'll both have the lamb, rare, with very little mint sauce."

There he was again, taking decision for her. She didn’t even like rare meat and he knew it well, but he didn’t really care. 

She didn’t know what inhuman strength held her back from shouting at him. Elsa felt her face strained for the effort to stay calm.

"You like lamb, right, honey?" Hans said with his cheeky and uninterested smile.

"Get it together." Elsa said to herself.

She managed to nod to the future husband with a fake smile on her face. Hans seemed satisfied by it.

However the efforts of the blonde girl didn't seem to pass unnoticed to Gerda Brown, who was sitting in front of them.

"Are you going to cut the lamb for her, too, Hans?" She said, smiling at Elsa and glaring at the boy.

Hans didn't like the comment. Gerda giggled, a laugh that said she knew better. Elsa looked down a at her hands. It was true, Hans had complete mastery over her life but what could she do? Could she do anything? And knowing that Gerda was aware of this, it was humiliating. But the woman had acted in good faith by coming to her rescue. Elsa felt her eyes become glossy and anger was throbbing through her veins.

"Don’t feel, don’t feel, don’t..."

Gerda then asked who had given the name 'Titanic' and the speech came back on that topic but Elsa was too much distracted and heard only a few words.

"...Greatness ..."

Oh yeah, for sure Hans thought to be someone important. He was so arrogant and presumptuous.

"...Stability..."

Idun would have scolded her because of the imperfect posture, forcing her to be more straight with her back.

"...Strength..."

That was what she needed in that moment but she had never had it, otherwise she wouldn't have been in that situation.

She called the waiter, asking for wine and she drank it with less grace than she would have had to show. Alcohol burned her throat and went down to his stomach. It tasted like a liquid power.

"Elsa dear, you know I don't approve that." Idun said, in a falsely polite whisper.

Everything in her life could have been declared "fake". She ignored her mother and took another couple of sips. 

She had never been able to hold on the booze. She immediately felt its effect against his bowels, even if she had drunk only two glasses. With a new-found energy, she turned facing Ismay, who was still talking about why he chose the name 'Titanic' and she confronted him.

"You know, Mr. Ismay, that an Austrian doctor has openly stated his concerns toward males and their greatness needs. Perhaps it might interest you. May I lend you a copy?"

Hans and Iduun got shocked, while Mrs. Brown glanced an amused look at her words, probably agreeing with what she had just said. After this, Hans told the waiter that was still behind Elsa to get away with the wine. 

"I apologize for her attitude. Our little Elsa drank too much."

Then Hans turned to the blonde girl and whispered: "That’s enough."

Elsa looked at him. Then she turned to look at her mother, who still had a look of horror on his face. She placed firmly the glass on the table. Hans was right.

"Enough…" She thought.

"You're right, that's enough." She said in a loud voice, scornfully.

Then she got up from the table and turned, striding away from that place. She also heard Hans saying "What's wrong with her?" but Elsa just wanted to leave and get away. The alcohol was still running into her veins. She needed fresh air, so she decided to head for the deck, leaving everything behind.

*

"Hey , you're draw- Ouch! Hey! Punz why did you hit me?!"  
"Olaf, shut up! Can't you see that she's concentrated?"

Four people were sitting in a corner of the third class deck, on some wooden empty crates, that gave them a great view of the front of the ship. They could also see the deck of the first and second class and an equally wonderful view of their surroundings: the horizon in front of them was breathtaking. They could clearly see the horizontal line where the sea gave way to the huge open space of the sky, covered with clouds in a few points, and the sun shining up between them. 

Flynn had sat back, leaning with his back against the ship's railing, smoking a cigarette and enjoying the view of Olaf and Rapunzel. Olaf had tried to disturb Anna, earning a slap on the shoulder by the blonde girl, and they were playfully bickered with each other.

On the other hand, Anna was not paying any attention to the two. They could even detonate a bomb inside the ship but she wouldn't have noticed anything. The concentration of the girl was amazing when it came to her drawings. 

A few minutes before they were all chatting, but then the attention of Anna lingered on a particular pair of people. A father with his daughter were watching the view from the second class deck and when Anna saw then, they immediately caught her attention. She took her sketchbook, opened it on a blank page, took blacks pastels from the case she was carrying in her pocket and started to drawn them, among the amazement of her friends who didn't understand what was happening with the strawberry-blonde girl to act like that. Olaf tried to approach her, but before he could even finish the sentence, he was been hit by Rapunzel.

Rapunzel, at that moment, was tickling Olaf, who was laughing so hard that he couldn't even stand up. Anna barely heard the scream of the boy begging for mercy.

"Stop! Stop! Please, I'll die!"  
"That's what you deserve, Oliver!"  
"No, not you too! Stop!"

And this time, Rapunzel gave a respite to the boy who had tears in his eyes from laughing.

"Oh man, out of shape..." Olaf said, breathing heavily "Are you sure you and Anna are not lost sisters or cousins or relatives of some sort?"

Rapunzel looked a little surprised.

"Of course we are not relatives. Why do you say so?"  
"Oh I don't know. You both love art, you like tickling your friends in revenge... you call me Oliver..."   
"Oh, don't sulk now Olaf. Come here, I'll give you a hug."

Olaf stopped suddenly to pout and his eyes lit up.

“Really?! Oooh, I love warm hugs!”

The two hugged tightly, smiling to each other. Flynn then intervened. 

“By the way Olaf, what’s up with the reddish?” 

Olaf looked at Anna and answered.

"Anna always act like this when she sees something that inspires her. It doesn't happen often. Usually is commissioned pictures but when she sees something she absolutely wants to draw that she finds wonderful, she must capture the moment."

Flynn gave a hint of understanding, while Rapunzel, who had understood the situation, went back sitting on her wooden crate.

Meanwhile, Anna concentrated as she was, didn't notice the exchange between her friends and she kept on outlining the forms of the two. After a few minutes, however, they went away, allowing the strawberry-blonde girl to get distracted for a moment and regard what she had done. 

The main points had already been printed on the paper: you could clearly see the little girl in her father arms who had got her up, probably to give her a better view of the landscape. That moment was so full of love that Anna couldn't let it get away. The girl in fact loved to draw landscapes or family scenes where people were happy and felt love. To be honest she was good at drawing portraits too. She loved drawing because every picture had a story and a unique memory.

Anna looked up from her drawing and looked around. Her three friends were still there, relaxing outdoor. Olaf was even lying on the floor with his arms and legs spread, sunbathing. He was so funny in his position that Anna had to hold back the laughter. He looked like a starfish. She kept looking at her friend. Her life had taken a completely positive turn since Olaf had agreed to become her traveling companion. Then she remembered how they had spent the previous evening and smiled at that thought.

The previous day Anna had insisted on seeing the sunset from the bow of the ship. She had convinced Olaf with a simple phrase…

"Come on Olaf, the sunset!"  
"Anna, I'm tired. Let's get back to the cabin with Rapunzel and Flynn."  
"But the sky is awake and we are awake! So we have to play!"

That were the magic words to convince Olaf. She knew she had won after pronouncing them. In fact Olaf let himself being dragged from the girl to the bow of the ship. When they arrived at their destination Anna went up immediately on the railing of the ship and looked out. Olaf did the same. They looked at each other and then shouted at the same time.

"We are the King and the Queen of the world!"

They found themselves laughing for the nth time. The two left the strong wind that was blowing in the bow, caress their bodies. Anna opened her arms and remained in that position for a while. The feeling was incredible; it seemed to fly!

"Olaf! I'm flying!"   
"I didn't know you were a bird, why didn't you tell me?"

The strange thing was that Olaf wasn't trying to make a joke, but it looked deeply offended. For eighteen years, he had remained the same innocent boy, but since they had left to travel together, Anna had definitely corrupted Olaf, converting him to gamble, magazines of models in bikinis and the art of flirting with the girls.

She had irretrievably ruined him. 

"Olaf, I'm just kidding!"  
"Ah, I thought it was odd. You have no feathers or wings or beak. You don't look like a bird at all!"

 

Anna snorted amused. She looked around and a water sprinkle caught her eye. Not understanding, she leaned a little forward and from the ocean a dolphin appeared.

"Hey, look, look! A dolphin!"  
"A what?"  
"A dolphin! They are kind of long fish jumping in front of the ship and they live in the water but they are mammals because... Oh well, never mind, but look Olaf! Here's another one!"

Olaf leaned out and let out a long whistled and then added:   
"Oh, I know those things! They are dolphins!"   
"Wait, what? And what did I've just said?"  
"Anna, look!"

The two companions passed their time like that. They admired the dolphins until sunset. The sky had more color on it, a perfect combination of orange, red, yellow and blue. Their shades were painting it, weaving to one another, and the air began to fill with the evening breeze, replacing the torpor the sun was carrying. 

Before leaving the deck to get back in their cabin, Anna took Olaf and began to twirl around in a silent dance, letting the fatigue crept in all parts of their body.

 

Anna had to admit that the cot where she slept that night was more comfortable of the expanse of grass where they had slept a few days before, but nothing could be compared with the beauty of sleeping outside and the sound of crickets in comparison to Eugene snoring.

Anyway, she returned to the present, forgetting about Flynn. She was still staring Olaf, with the only difference that he was looking at her too.

“Brat, what were you drawing?”

Olaf had started calling her ‘brat’ long ago. 

In that occasion the two had run into kids who were beating a dog and the strawberry-blonde girl had arrogantly said:

"Hey brats! Leave him alone unless you want to get in trouble!"

The aura that she emanated was so frightening that the kids ran away scared. Since then Olaf used the word 'brat' to call her.

"It's not finished yet, but I saw a father with his daughter on the deck of the second class and they were so beautiful together that I couldn't immortalize them."  
"Where are they? I want to see them." Rapunzel said.   
"They were up there" She pointed where they the couple was before "but now they are-"

Anna stopped in mid-sentence, holding her breath and letting her mouth open.

"What’s wrong?" Rapunzel said in a worried tone. 

She approached her, passing her hand over her face a few times, but Anna showed no signs of life.

"-gone." She finished the sentence by releasing the breath she was holding.

Her gaze was attracted by a young elegant lady, dressed in a light blue suit. She was facing the railing of the first class, a deck above where before there was the couple who had portrayed. Her hair in a bun on top of her head, was platinum blonde, so shiny that Anna seemed to have been blinded. Her eyes, despite the distance between them, were unmistakably of a blue ice color. 

Anyone would have felt chilled by her eyes but Anna felt overheated. The woman had sad lineaments that worried the strawberry-blonde girl, who couldn't take her eyes off from.

That figure sighed and turned her head to the side. 

For a moment their eyes met. 

The blue sea eyes of Anna confronted those blue ice ones. Anna felt herself blushing uncontrollably. 

She never knew if the moments had lasted only a few seconds, minutes or hours, but the spell ended when a man reached the auburn-haired woman and brought her back inside.

The three friends around her shook her energetically and Anna returned to the real world, even if part of her mind remained linked to the figure she had just seen.

"What did you see?" Olaf asked, curious.

Anna swallowed.

"That was definitely an angel."


	7. Running Away

Elsa realized a thing that evening at dinner. 

She was surrounded by her mother’s friends, if they could be defined like that. They were just a bunch of rich noble gentlemen only interested in how many valuable jewels they had around their necks and how much money they had. And she understood that that her life would have always been limited just to that. She thought about her future and didn’t see anything different. She was sitting by her mother and, in that moment, it didn’t matter if she were seventeen, thirty or fifty years old, because the scene would have always been the same. Her whole life seemed to have been already lived. It was just an endless procession of festivals, dance companies, yachts, polo matches: always the same mean and vile people; always the same stupid chatter.

As time passed she got closer and closer to the edge, ready to collapse. No one was willing to hold her. No one really cared of her so much.

Conceal, don’t feel, don’t let them know.

She had recited those words like a charm during all day. And she was still repeating it. But her mantra soon stopped working and all that was left to do was to let it go.

...

For the second time that day she was running away, but that moment was different: it would have been the very last time. She wouldn’t have run away again. She had fled for too long and she was tired, so tired of her monotonous and meaningless life. No one understood her, no one really cared about her. But soon it would have been be all over. The pain would have gone away.

She ran, without looking back, occasionally wiping the tears that was forming in her eyes and streamed down her dress.

She ran, ignoring the painful throbbing of her feet caused by the heels she was wearing. She forgot the immense effort it was taking to her legs, even the grace she should had to show didn’t mind in that moment.

She ran, ignoring the chasm that had opened in her chest. 

Insignificant. 

Useless. 

Hopeless. 

Her thoughts were talking in her head as if they had a will of their own. All the attempts to get rid of them had been futile, so she began to listen to them and started believing they were right.

She was insignificant. 

She was useless. 

After all, it was true.

And she was alone.

She crossed a few passengers on her way but they stepped aside quickly, leaving her passing over, without caring. 

She ran so fast that even breathing seemed to be difficult. Her heart was beating as if it were aware of the intentions of the girl, as if it wanted to change her mind. But the choice had been taken. Right or wrong, it didn’t matter. She just wanted to get rid of the pain that gripped her soul, that never leave her, not even for a second.

"Sooner or later, the Ice Queen will fall at my feet."

The words that Hans said that afternoon echoed in her head without a reason and it was enough to make her angry. 

She wouldn’t have been a rag doll under their control anymore. Once the end would had arrived, he and her mother wouldn’t have had anyone else to play their stupid mind games with.

She would have finally been alone and for a few moments she would have felt free.

...  
[Before]

When she returned to the cabin, after her outburst at the dining table and her escape on the deck, she locked herself in her room, slamming the door.

Hans had come to take her, probably for blaming her behavior, but Elsa hadn’t allowed him to talk. She whispered a "leave me alone" in a sharp tone and then she got back in her room, leaving only an eerie silence.

The auburn boy left her in peace only when he was sure that Elsa would have never do something like that again and then he walked away without a word. 

Elsa just stayed there, sitting on the floor with her back against the door and her legs close to her chest. She had taken that pose so many times that just thinking about it made her sick, but the only way she knew to vent was shutting in her room and do nothing but despair. She cried silently, letting out only a few hiccups from time to time, allowing the tears to fall free while the alcohol was being disposed. She stayed like that for almost an hour, even though it seemed like an eternity, without moving a single centimeter of her body, when suddenly she heard a soft knock at the door.

The sound seemed to come from far away, as if the world had moved miles and miles away from her. She raised her head, feeling a dull throbbing inside her skull. Her muscles were stretched for being in the same position for too long. The vision was blurred by all the tears that she had spilled, her eyes itched. She felt like if she grew old of thirty years old.

Then her ears were greeted by a melodic and worried voice.

It was Mellow.

"Elsa? Are you there?"

But Elsa wouldn’t have answered. She didn’t want to be seen in that condition by anyone, even if the only person who was deep in her side was worried for her.

Time was still flowing. Her tears had stopped for a while, the alcohol was no longer circulating in her veins and what remained was only emptiness. Total emptiness. 

The silence was interrupted from time to time by the slightly, worried knocking of her waitress, who asked her to get out and talk, but Elsa wasn’t listening. She needed to be alone for a while, then she would have come out and be the usual same girl. She would have worn again her fake mask, behaving like the good girl everyone believed her to be and being the perfect daughter and girlfriend. And the endless loop would have started again, the same meandering and meaningless loop, as it had always been.

Footsteps began echoing in the room next door, along with the movement of a chair, a sign that someone had got up.

Mellow’s voice sounded once again, although that time she wasn’t talking to Elsa but to the newcomer.

“Mr. Southern."

Elsa shivered. Fear began rushing through her veins. She clung her legs even stronger at the sound of his voice and the knuckles of her hands took a white shade.

"Oh, I didn’t expect to see you here, Miss Marsh. May I call you Mellow?"

Elsa imagined to see the waitress nodding. Then Hans started talking again, even more treacherous.

"Is our beautiful Ice Queen still here?"

A moment of silence followed those words, the atmosphere became even more tense until...

"No sir, Miss Elsa was hungry and she decided to leave the room."

Elsa felt unimaginably grateful for Mel and she slightly relaxed her shoulders. She kept in mind to thank the girl later and maybe also to buy her a gift, for the devotion she was showing at that moment.

"I see" Hans said, not entirely convinced. "Well, you won’t mind if I leave a message for her, then. Tell her she can’t run away forever and soon she will have to decide which side she wants to take. As if she had a choice."

The sentence ended with a sarcastic and malignant laugh. Elsa thought he was leaving the room and that she had finally rid of him, but then again his voice reappeared, this time with a higher tone, as if he knew that she was there just a few meters from him. Elsa felt her blood freezing in her veins, while tears found their way to the eyes of the girl.

"Sooner or later, our Ice Queen will fall at my feet"

And he left.

…

Elsa was running without a clear destination with the only through of freedom. She descended the steps of the stairs, bumping into some passers, unaware of her intentions.

She arrived at the third class deck, out of breath, with her legs trembling. She didn’t give any rest to her body, which desperately needed to slow down and get some air. She tightened her grip on the dress, and rushed to the stern of the ship.

During her frantic race she didn’t notice that she had passed a series of benches where a girl was lying. Her strawberry blonde hair were gathered in two braids and she was admiring the dreamy quilt of stars above her.

The difference between the two girls couldn’t be more obvious.

Anna had been all day absent-minded. She daydreamed and occasionally her three friends had to remind her to wipe the trickle of drool that took shape on her rosy lips. Obviously Anna had told them all the details of her vision: angelic blue eyes, blond surreal hair, the pallor that adorned her face... When she wasn’t lost in her thoughts, all she could do was talk and talk and talk and talk about the mysterious girl. 

They found difficult to actually believe at her story. They thought Anna could have had hallucination. Even if it was true, according to Olaf, Rapunzel and Eugen, the young girl wouldn’t have any hope and they repeated this to her a lot of times, trying to make her regain consciousness:

"Brat, listen to your best friend and the best love expert of the world. You can’t try to flirt with an angel! It would tooooo much strange. You are a human being, with skull and bones and everything else. Don’t lose your head, okay? Come on, give me a warm hug."

“Well I think it's out of reach for you, reddish. Even if she exist, and I believe you for sure, I don’t think you're sick or something, she is of an entirely different category. It's like a princess ended up falling in love with the thief who stole her crown and eventually get married with him. It will never happen! So back to the initial subject... are you sure you don’t want to try that threesome? Maybe we could also add Olaf and we would enjoy it all togeth - Ok, I'll shut up."

"I didn’t know you liked blondes! Oh I'm so happy! If you find someone let me know immediately, ok?! I want to be the first one to know, and... oh, wait. Eugene and Olaf say I should lecture you. Uhm, well... stop thinking about it. Probably you won’t even see her again and well, it all ends here. So in addition to the blondes, you also like brunettes or something?"

But their efforts didn’t help Anna at all. She was tired of being told that the woman was just a figment of her imagination due to excess of the sunlight. She stayed most of the day in a private corner on the deck, away from her friends. She returned to the cabin in the evening to get an heavier jacket, annunciating that she would have skipped dinner and that she would have been on the deck, watching the sunset and the stars that would have eventually arrived later. Olaf was shocked because, in his opinion, Anna had never refused to eat when she had the chance to do it and he called the strawberry blonde girl a "lost cause"

But as hard as she tried (not that she was really trying), Anna couldn’t erase that angelic figure from her mind.

At the time she was lying belly up on the bench of the deck, her legs crossed and her hands under her head, in order to give a softer support. The evening breeze against her face was pleasant, though she was glad she was wearing one more layer of clothing since the sudden drop in temperature of the night. 

The distant murmurs of the other passengers echoed in the air and was quiet pleasant. Closing her eyes, Anna could have sworn that she could have seen the features of the woman of the deck with all her details. In particular, she had been enchanted by her ice blue eyes.

"Such perfect." She murmured.

Taking advantage of the solitude, she started humming one of her favorite songs, even changing the words a little bit.

“For the first time in forever, there were music, there were light,  
for the first time in forever, I dreamed the one that will be mine.  
And I know I’m totally crazy to hope to find her somehow,  
but for the first time in forever I wanna see her right now.”

Anna giggled at her masterpiece while trying to find a more comfortable position on the bench. She didn’t even have time to settle that the atmosphere was interrupted by the approaching sound of heels, resounding on the deck of the ship.

Her first reaction was to remain impassive, avoiding anyone who was coming. She wanted to be alone in order to continue enjoying her daydream. The running footsteps of the person who was coming were stronger and stronger until a figure passed a few centimeters from her bench. 

She was so close that Anna was surprised she didn’t bump into it.

Everything happened in a moment. For a second, time stopped running and Anna, with the corner of her eye, managed to saw a few platinum blonde strings and what it looked like a rain drop falling from the eyes of the person. Her nose was delighted by the scent of peppermint, but before the strawberry blonde girl could realize who was there, or even what had happened, the time started flowing again at its normal speed. The blonde wires disappeared from her view, as well as the person who had passed. 

Anna sat up quickly, so quickly in fact that she felt dizzy and her sight darkened. She mentally cursed herself and when the sight started working again, she looked around, where the person was running.

She wasn’t dreaming, right? She pinched strongly her cheek and struggled to hold back the whimper that was about to come out of her mouth.

She definitely wasn’t dreaming, but no one was in sight, the footsteps sound had disappeared, no blonde hair were visible...

"It was her?" She found herself thinking, but it sounded more like a question than a statement.

That rain drop... 

“…She was crying"

That realization was enough: she got up and she hoped that it wasn’t a dream or a hallucination and ran toward the place where the figure had disappeared, praying all the gods to find her.


	8. You Jump, I Jump.

Elsa had run for a while that seemed an eternity. She only stopped when she arrived to the stern of the ship. Her face was still streaked with tears and her eyes had become red and puffy since she had never stopped crying. Her throat was dry and sore and she was desperately trying to accommodate every draft of air she could. Her legs had begun to tremble, but she didn’t know if it was for the cool evening air, the fear of what it was about to happen or the effort she had made to reach that place.

She turned her head to see if someone had followed her, if someone had cared but there was no one.

No one was in sight, no one had asked her how she was, no one had tried to stop her.

This confirmed her thoughts. 

There was no one willing to hold her hand to save her. She was alone, after all.

She turned back and looked at the end of the ship. The last meters that separated her from the rail were covered with slow and wobbly steps, at a pace almost funereal.

She put her hand on the railing and tightened her grip for a few moments. That was the last obstacle to overcome.

She slowly began to climb, step by step, and before she realized what she was doing, she leaned in front of her and saw nothing but one thing: freedom.

The world became suddenly mute. All the chaos of her life had gone, as if someone had just thrown water on an fireplace. No sound was heard, everything seemed to have stopped in her eyes and her worries disappeared.

Was that what it would have expected her from now on? It wasn’t that bad. She wasn’t even scared. 

She should have done it much earlier.

The ocean had never seemed so inviting. It was so mysterious and dark. She felt it in her head, they were calling her.

Her hands were still tight against the railing. It would required only a single step, one more step and everything would have been over. The foot was already in midair, ready to jump, when...

"Stop right there!"

A distant voice made her coming out from her trance and reality fell back on her.

Her ears were greeted by the roar of the waves slamming against the ship and the noise of the engine in action. Her dress was fluttering uncontrollably because of the strong wind, her hair was floating everywhere, ruffling wildly .  
The water below her, which just a few moments ago had given her a sense of security and decision, appeared to her eyes threatening and horrible, as if inhabited by dark monsters. And as its surroundings began to take shape, so did her thoughts and the fear returned, setting in every inch of her body.

Her grip on the railing increased.

She was wondering why she had regained consciousness when the clear and firm voice reappeared.

"Don’t do it."

Elsa whirled. Behind her a strawberry blonde girl was leaning over her, with her hands resting on her knees, taking long breaths, as if she had just finished running a marathon. Her two braided pigtails were unkempt and her clothes were secondhand. Probably in a different time, Elsa would have wondered if the girl had at least some money to eat, because of her skinny and streamlined shape, and how she managed to get on a ship as luxurious as the Titanic was, but that wasn’t a normal moment.

She was still processing that thought that the girl spoke again without stopping.

"Gosh I didn’t think you were that fast, considering those heels you’re wearing. If I hadn’t stumbled into that bucket I would have probably come first." 

The strawberry blonde looked up and their eyes met. Elsa thought she had seen that look somewhere but she couldn’t remember where.

"Seriously, have you ever thought to participate to any sports? It's really hard to keep up with you. I saw you run on the deck and I wondered what a beautiful lady with a such sad expression on her face was doing on there. And trust me when I say that you’re really, really beautiful. And cute. And beautiful. And sweet. Even if I don’t know whether or not you’re sweet but maybe someday we we’ll know better. And you’re beautiful, have I already said that? And sensual... Wait… I shouldn’t have said this!"

Her face became red while Elsa's eyes widened in realization of what she had just said. Her cheeks were met by a slight pink tinge.  
Elsa didn’t understand why she was listening to the uncontrollably rambling of that girl. She tried to resume her line of thought and she turned to the girl who was now rubbing the back of the head with her hand.

"W-who are you?"

What was she even saying? Miss Braids had clearly infected her with her nonsense. One thing was sure: that wasn’t exactly the best situation for a chat.

"Wait, no. It doesn’t matter. Just… You have to go."

Unfortunately for her, the voice didn’t come out as authoritarian as she wanted. It showed every single drop of anxiety and fear. She turned back to hide her face and ignore the person behind her, placing her gaze to the treacherous waves below her.

"Oh, I haven’t introduced myself, have I? I apologize. I'm Anna, Anna Dawson."

Anna had spent the last minutes looking for the shiny-haired figure but she was nowhere to be seen. The deck was strangely empty and hopelessly huge. She had been surprised again of the size of the ship but, that time, the wonder contained a note of irritation.

She had decided to try to move towards the stern of the ship and as soon as she had approached it, she found her.

"It’s her!" She almost shouted.

The woman was climbing over the rail and Anna had naively wondered why she found the propellers of the ship at night so interesting. Anyway, it was quite dangerous. She was prepared for the final run, but she had been interrupted by the appearance of an empty bucket. She had managed to clashed against the only empty bucket across the deck and then fall to the ground. But she was sure it was a magic bucket appeared out of nowhere and that prospect let integrate her dignity. She had got up, cursing without any control and had started running again.

She slowed her pace before reaching the girl and what the blonde girl was doing became suddenly more clear.

"To hell with the propellers." She had thought.

And there she was now, in front of the woman who had stolen her thoughts throughout the day and just asked her to leave. But Anna didn’t care what had just been said. She focused only on the tone of panic in the voice of the blonde girl in front of her and the tremble of her body.

"She's afraid.” She said.

After introducing herself, she could have sworn that the corner of her eyes was focus on her face. She decided to intervene.

"Give me your hand, I’ll pull you back."  
"No!"

Anna 's eyes widened. She didn’t expect a negative response, seeing how afraid she seemed.

"Stay where you are. I mean it. I’ll let go."

But the strawberry girl snorted.

"What? Impossible. You won’t."

It was the turn of the other girl 's eyes to wide and turning back to her. Her eyes were full of tears and she was showing a pout that Anna couldn’t help but find...

"Adorable." She thought.

She put her hands in her pockets and took a few steps forward, still maintaining a certain distance. She looked away from the girl, staring down. It was really high. She turned back to the blonde.

"What does it mean? Don’t presume to tell me what I will and will not do. You don’t know me!"  
"I didn’t mean this. Just… if you really wanted to, you would have done it already, Miss...?"

The girl seemed to think about her words for a moment. She seemed reluctant to say her name, but then she muttered something.

"Excuse me?" Anna said.  
"Arendelle. Elsa... Elsa Arendelle"

Anna repeated in her head for a few times.  
"Elsa, Elsa, Elsa, Elsa..."  
She wouldn’t have forgot it.

"It's a beautiful name." She whispered.

Apparently that sentence wasn’t meant to be said out loud, much less heard by Elsa, who blushed again. Anna put her hand over her mouth in shock for thinking out loud. She let out a nervous laugh and put a stray lock of hair behind her ear.

The gesture drew Elsa attention, who discovered, in the strawberry blonde hair, a white streak that was making its way on the right side of her head, from the root to the tip of the hair. Someone would have said that the streak had been colored or painted with something, but looking carefully, it seemed to enclose something magical. That small distraction didn’t last long because her thoughts were interrupted by Anna’s voice.

"However I can’t leave. We can work this out together!"

She smiled .

A warm and sweet smile that Elsa thought she had never seen.

It was the first real and genuine thing she has came across since a long time and she was surprised that this came from a stranger who had known, when? Five minutes before? Ten? It was so odd with what was used to that she almost felt relieved.

"So if you really let go, I’m going to have to jump in there after you."

Anna then took off her jacket to emphasize her point. As she had predicted, the blonde girl was shocked to see that, and when she spoke, her tone left transpire... terror.

"You can’t. You’ll be killed! A person like you can’t want to die like this!"  
"Well, let's be clear. I really don’t want to jump. The water is very, very cold around here."

The last words she said were specially said slowly and with a disarming calm. Anna knew how to play her cards and she had to be careful to play them for the better.

"Then leave." Elsa almost shouted .  
"I won’t."  
"Don’t be stubborn!"

Elsa was exasperated by now. She was tired, confused and unable to think clearly. And that strawberry blonde girl in front of her didn’t make things easier. She didn’t want to put her in danger, she would have never forgiven herself for that, but Anna had to be necessarily as stubborn as a mule and take the side of the hero. She couldn’t stand it. She felt tears take shape again in her eyes. When had she stopped crying? She didn’t even know her. Seeing the determined face of the girl, Elsa decided to afford a distraction. She didn’t want to cry in front of her. She returned to the previous speech.

"How cold?"

Anna seemed heartened by the change of speech and continued to emphasize her words to give more meaning to what she said and make Elsa to return to her side. 

"Freezing. Maybe a couple of degrees over. Are you American?"  
"What?"  
"Are you American?"

Well, that’s what is usually called a disarming change of discourse. Elsa wondered if the girl was just stupid and wanted to have a chat or if she wanted to say something more. She decided to give her a chance, so she nodded in response. 

"Have you ever been in Wisconsin?"

Ok, give her a chance had definitely been a bad idea. She certainly wanted to have a chat.

“I do not think..." but she was interrupted.  
"You know, I grew up near there. There are some of the coldest winters around. When I was a kid, me and my family went ice skating. I wasn’t very good... The thing are the same now as well, I haven’t got better. I’ve never tried again after that time so I didn’t practice much anymore, and I really, really suck, even if I’m good at many other things and..."

Anna looked up to see that Elsa was looking at her, annoyed. She knew she was rambling and cleared her throat.

"... Anyway... my mother wanted to teach me, so we went out on a frozen lake not far from our home. But the ice cracked."

Elsa gasped.

"I fell in the water. And I’m telling you water that cold, like right down there, it hits you like a thousand knives stabbing you all over. You can’t breathe, you can’t thing. At least not about anything but the pain. You can only wish to die as soon as possible. The amount of pain is immense and doesn’t abandon you until the last second, when it’s too late."

The strawberry blonde girl was mentally praising herself. The look of sheer terror on Elsa’s face made her realize that the battle was won by now. She had victory in hand. She began to approach the blonde with zealous step.

"Which is why I’m not looking forward to jumping in there after you. Like I said, I don’t have a choice. Although to be honest, I’m hoping you’ll come back over the rail to come here, so you may thank me like a princess would do with her hero."

She winked. Elsa seemed offended and looked away.

"You're crazy." She whispered.

She had no doubt. She was just a stupid American girl... that... that was flirting with her? Wait, what?

She heard her approaching and when she was close enough, she was greeted by a light fragrance of flowers. It was a scent sweet and vivid, so different from the usual odors around her. She found that she didn’t mind her presence beside her. 

Anna laughed. She wasn’t the only one who had told her that, it was probably a part of her personality, from which she would have never freed. Sher reached out Elsa, just touching her. That little touch was enough to make her feel butterflies in the stomach. She walked over to her ear and whispered.

"Trust me."

Their eyes met again. Elsa, a bit hesitant, took her hand and began to turn around.

Did she really trusts her?

As soon as their hands had joined, all doubts disappeared and the answer to her silent question leaped to mind. Anna had a firm grip on her arm, she had nothing to worry.

Yes, she could trust.

And it's just when she thought that no one cared about her that she found her. She found that person who would have been ready to protect and defend her and to show her that she could have gone on living.  
Finally she found her. She felt a twinge of gratitude and affection for that unknown person.

The two were face to face. Elsa could see every centimeter of the face of Anna and she was surprised again by the color of the eyes of the girl. She had already seen those eyes. They seemed to shine, full of life, purity and joy.  
They were of a particular blue sea. They didn’t reflect the expanse of water below them, frightening and dark, but the days when the ocean was calm and they could have had fun without danger, certain that it would have protected you from everything.

"How about thank your hero for saving you now? Perhaps with a kiss?"

With that sentence, Anna earned a slap. She was surprised by how strong a high class lady could be. Anyway, Elsa hadn’t let go her hand and she thought it was a positive thing.

Elsa lifted her foot to step over the parapet, but as soon as her heel clashed against the wet metal, this slipped.

It all happened in an instant. At first Anna was looking at the angelic face of Elsa, then all of a sudden she felt pushed down and her chest collided heavily against the railing.

Below her Elsa stirred. She clearly felt it by the jolts that was undergoing her arm.

"No!"  
"Calm down, I got you!"

But the blonde seemed to not listen and continued struggling...

"Elsa! ELSA!"

To her name, she looked upward. Anna was looking at her firmly and as calm as she could in a similar moment.

And when she spoke, unconsciously she used a friendly tone, as if she had forgotten that she was talking to a lady.

"I got you, Elsa. Have you heard me? I won’t let you go. Okay?"

Elsa nodded. It was strange to be floating in the air like that. Very scary, of course. But the self-confidence of Anna was contagious.

"Come on!"

And with a huge effort, the strawberry blonde girl tried to pull her up. Elsa was helping her, trying again to grasp the parapet and she had almost succeeded when she slipped again; Anna clashed again against the slippery metal, without letting the grip go.

"Please, help! Please, please help me!"

Elsa had resumed to struggle, as result of another wave of fear.

Anna's hand had started to get sweaty and she didn’t know how much longer she could have resisted. Despite everything, however, she refrained herself. She said that she wouldn’t have let her go, and she was a trustworthy person.

"Listen to me! I got you Elsa! Let's try again, okay? On three! One!"

Elsa and Anna took a deep breath.

"Two!"

Anna prepared to ask one last effort to her body. They looked each other into their eyes: the determination of Anna against the fear of Elsa.

"THREE!"

Anna pulled as hard as she could, closing her eyes from the effort, using both hands, while her legs were trying to hold her balance on the deck. A metallic sound echoed in Anna’s ears, as Elsa was able to grasp to the railing and pushed with all her force. Then the strawberry blonde girl managed to take the girl to her hips and pull her to the other side, and before the two could also finally understand that the danger was over they found themselves on the deck.

A loud thud reverberated in the air, followed by a slight unladylike snort and a barely perceptible curse. The girls was lying on the ground, a few meters from the ship railing. Elsa had her eyes closed and was shaking like a leaf, refusing to let go of the one thing that she was grabbing on to: Anna’s arm. 

A sigh of relief came from the lips of the strawberry girl who was holding on her arms in order not to crush Elsa.

"Wow, this was a crazy trust exercise."

Anna was trying to ignore the outcry of her now-aching muscles, for the action she had just accomplished. She concentrated in the girl below her. Before she could even register what she was doing, her hand went to brush her blonde fringe, putting it to one side. 

At her touch the girl opened her eyes. Anna smiled brightly.

"Hi."

Elsa looked at her and couldn’t help but laugh in turn, putting a hand in front of her mouth. A simple and natural laugh for the first time in forever.

And hearing her laugh, Anna had to admit to herself that she had fell in love with that woman, so crazy to climb over the railing and so beautiful to drive her crazy. 

Both didn’t move out of their uncomfortable positions, enjoying each other's company, until Elsa slightly lifted her head and kissed Anna on the cheek, whispering something in her ear.

“To thank my knight for saving me."

Anna was shocked. When the soft lips of Elsa leaned gently against her cheek she could have sworn that a flock of butterflies had taken possession of her stomach.

And for the first time in forever, there were music, there were light. For the first time in forever, she had really found her somehow.


	9. The Value Of Life

The time on the deck seemed to have stopped. Two girls were laying one above the other, catching their breath, without caring of their surroundings and almost forgetting the events that had just happened .

Elsa was lying on her back against the hard and uncomfortable floor. Her attention wasn’t directed on the throbbing pain in her body that implored to change position, or the bruise that was forming on her arm where the strawberry blonde girl had taken her and held her so firmly. Instead she was completely captured by the embarrassed and dreamy face of Anna, the girl who had just kissed.

Meanwhile, Anna was still believing to dream. She wasn’t worried about the slightly tremble of her arms, as if they were protesting against the current position, and she was even less bothered by the bruise in her stomach caused from having clashed repeatedly against the metal railing.   
She was out of breath again but the reason of it was the girl under her. 

Her cheek, where she had been kissed, was throbbing, prolonging the feeling of soft lips that previously had touched it. She knew she had a ridiculous appearance with her cheeks so red, the messy hair and her incredulity wrote all over her face and apparently Elsa had thought the same thing since she was looking at her trying not to laugh. 

Anna was still lost in Elsa’s ice blue eyes when she felt someone tugging her away from the girl. She didn’t even have time to raise her head to see her aggressors; she suddenly felt pressed against the floor, on her stomach, with her arms behind her back. The only thing she could do was scream a simple "Hey!" in a hoarse voice. If previously her body was in an uncomfortable position, she had changed idea. The way she was laying down in that moment was ten times worse. She could clearly feel every single wooden board against her body. She could even smell the damp and salty deck.

"Let me go!" She shouted.

She tried to break free but any attempt to fight seemed to be futile. Her head was turned toward the railing and she couldn’t see Elsa’s situation. She heard only one sentence from her:

"Leave her alone!"

But she was ignored too as the newcomers began to talk to each other.

“Should we call the captain?"  
"That girl seems Southern’s fiancée."  
"Should we call him?"  
"We’ll call them both!"  
"I'll get him here, you keep your eyes on them."

Anna didn’t understand the meaning of these words. She was too busy trying to free herself but she gradually began to feel exhausted. Fatigue took possession of her body, forcing her to calm herself. 

She heard footsteps getting away. She couldn’t tell how many people were around there. Three, maybe four? And most importantly... 

How was Elsa? 

She couldn’t understand how these bandits had managed to approach them without being heard, but probably it was their fault. They were so engrossed in each other's presence that the surroundings of the place, the sounds of the ship, the passing of time, had disappeared from their mind, and it was probably because of this that they hadn’t heard none of those men approaching.

The man over her loosened his grip for a moment and, taking the opportunity, Anna managing to raise and turning her head slightly. She moved just enough to get the view of the other side of the deck but her aggressor didn’t like that movement.

"Move another time and you'll never want to breathe again." He tightened his grip. 

But Anna didn’t care about him. 

She had another priority. She immediately spotted Elsa a few meters from her. 

Two men were standing beside her, admiring Elsa with lust. She seemed pretty annoyed: her arms were crossed, her brow frown and, apparently, she refused to speak and explain the situation to what Anna understand to be sailors. At least, however, Elsa was fine, and that was the most important thing.

On the other hand, Elsa had never been in favor of violence and seeing her savior thrown to the ground so badly certainly didn’t help her mood. To be honest, the sudden events change had confused her: at first Anna’s flower fragrance was filling her air, inebriating her sense, and then, with their arrival, all the magic was dispersed and Anna was thrown away from her.

Initially she didn’t understand why they were making so much fuss, but after heard their conversation, and saw a sailor leaving in search of the captain and Hans, Elsa understood the situation.

Apparently her previously screams hadn’t been ignored. They had attracted the attention of the crew on board, which had almost immediately rushed towards the source of the sounds. Once they reached their destination, the scene before them could only been mistaken. 

Who wouldn’t try to save an high class girl, apparently helpless, held to the ground by a young lady wearing second-hand clothes, lightly soiled, who seemed to have the upper hand?   
Their uncombed hair let prefigure an attempt to fight by the blonde girl, not to mention those damn screams.

In any case, trying to be reasonable with these men was like trying to teach Hans the names of the most illustrious painters of the era: an impossible mission. She clearly understood it from their stupid faces. Only a bunch of idiots could be excited from having presumably saved the future fiancée of a Southern. A reward, that's what they expected. It was disgusting.

She looked in Anna direction and their eyes met. She felt a twinge of pain for the strawberry blonde girl, pressed against the floor and made a mental note to apologize to her later. Elsa turned to the two sailors who stood next to her, preparing to use the most authoritarian and coldest voice she could perform.

"Could you tell your friend over there to let the girl breathe? She won’t run away, I promise."

The two looked at each other. The man on her right spoke.

"But ma'am, that girl is dang-"  
"I won’t repeat it again." She interrupted him.

The humiliated man then went toward the third sailor and reluctantly released Anna. The strawberry blonde girl sat down and stretched, giving a nod of thanks to Elsa. Then she stood, letting her hand slip down into the pockets of her pants, under the stare of the sailor. 

They stayed silent for the remaining time. Anna and Elsa exchanged from time to time some glances, but no words came out of their mouths. 

Luckily for them they didn’t have to wait long for the arrival of Hans and the Captain, followed by the fourth sailor, a butler and the first officer.

Anna immediately understood she had important people before her. The captain was recognizable by the white uniform, which was different by the dark blue of the sailors around her, and the number of medals that were pinned on the chest. The officer was instead distinguished by his white uniform that was very similar with the police ones. There were a badge that all security guards had to have below and a nameplate under it, that Anna couldn’t read, instead of the medals of the captain uniform.   
The three were joined by an high class man with auburn hair and a pair of sideburns, followed by his butler. Both were dressed in clothes that were worth at least a hundred times the price of her clothing.

The man with sideburns, that she understood to be the famous Southern the sailors had mentioned, seemed pretty angry, and the first words she heard him say were not heartening.

"Arrest her and let her die in some cell!"

He was not angry. He was furious. 

Anna couldn’t think nothing but that she was in trouble.

The girl was spun and a pair of handcuffs were placed on her wrists. She didn’t even try to fight. She decided to have faith in Elsa, who still had an impassive face, although Anna could see a mixture of horror and contempt under that mask.   
To the blonde was reserved a total different attitude. The sailor, followed by the captain, approached her, placing a blanket over her shoulders, and walked over to a bench to make her sit down. Elsa let herself be dragged there, and, once seated, she turned to the captain.

"C-Captain Smith-" She said, trembling.  
"It’s Kai for you, Milady." He smiled.  
"Kai then. There was a misunderstanding. That girl didn’t tried to harm me. She..."

She paused, reliving the memory of the events that had just happened.

"... She saved my life"

Kai looked a bit shocked, and for a while there was only silent on the deck, allowing the screams of Hans to echo everywhere.

"This is unacceptable!"  
"How dare you put your hands on my fiancée?"  
"I'll kill you for assaulting her! I don’t care if you're a woman!"

Elsa gave a pleading stare to the captain, who placed a hand on her shoulder and smiled.

"Don’t worry. We will solve everything."

And he turned to join the others. Elsa got up and followed him, ignoring the comments of the sailor who was telling her to stand aside. Her eyes were once again headed to the strawberry blonde girl, whose face was impassive before the provocations of her future boyfriend.

Anna saw Elsa approaching and she turned her head in her direction to meet her gaze, but that made Hans more livid. He grabbed her collar, forcing Anna to look him straight in his eyes. He shouted in her face.

"Look at me, you filth!”  
"Hans!"

Elsa’s protest was heard, but the auburn-haired boy ignored it. 

Hans should have been grateful that Anna had a pair of handcuffs to hold her, otherwise she would have already punched the arrogant man right in the face. 

Hans’s outburst was interrupted by Kai, who tried to regain peace.

"I think that’s enough, Mr. Southern. Apparently there was a misunderstanding. She saved your girlfriend’s life. "

Hans’ eyes widened and, for a moment, he stared incredulously at Anna. 

"It's impossible." He whispered, releasing his grip.

Finally, his gaze turned on Elsa. She nodded.

"Hans, it was an accident."  
"An accident?"

He repeated, looking for explanations.

"It was!" Elsa said. "Stupid, really. I was leaning over and I slipped."

The blonde girl looked at Anna, who was clearly confused, as if she was seeking inspiration for the excuse that she was formulating.

"I was leaning far over to see the..." She continued, clearly distressed.

Then Anna gave a quick look around and, noticing that no one was watching her, she took the opportunity to spell the word "Propellers" in a voiceless whisper.

"... The propellers."  
"The propellers?" Hans said, more shocked.

Elsa looked back at the man.

"The propellers, yeah." She confirmed . "And I slipped. I would have fallen into the sea but Mrs. Dawson grabbed me and saved me. Once back with my feet on the ground, however, I slipped again and we ended up on the ground on the deck."

She laughed, a bit forcedly, to give a little of emphasis.

Anna thought the apology was a little weak, but apparently the others had a different opinion.  
The captain laughed.

"What a story! I always say this: Women and machinery do not mix! The propellers… HA!"

The strawberry blonde girl then were turning around again - she had lost the count of how many times that had happened - and the first officer faced her.

"Is it the truth?"

Anna gave a positive nod with her head, noticing with the corner of her eye the hopeful look on Elsa’s face. Apparently it was time to put into practice her ability to play poker.

"Yes, sir. That’s what happened, more or less ." She confirmed.  
"See, Mr. Southern? The girl is a hero!" The captain said. "For heaven's sake, remove the handcuffs, poor girl. Well done, well done!"

These words were followed by a strong pat on the back, so strong in fact that her legs almost gave away. A slight click announced that her hands were finally free from the handcuffs and she unconsciously started rubbing her sore wrists.

Hans was about to turn around and leave when the captain's voice rang out again.

"So what will be the reward of the girl?"

Hans stopped while Elsa barely managed to hide the smile at seeing the disappointed faces of the four sailors. But Anna felt herself blushing slightly. She was about to protest when a look of the blonde girl, one of those Try-to-say-a-word-and-I-will-cut-your-tongue look, frozen her. Anna shivered, staying silent.

Hans turned and summoned his butler.

"Mr. Marsh, can you give the little girl some banknotes? I think 20 or 30 dollars should do it."

Anna remained vaguely offended by the term used to describe her, but one thing was certain: she wasn’t interested to the money of that vile man. Just the thought was enough to disgust her. However she remained pleasantly surprised when Elsa tried to protest.

"So the price of my life, for you, is worth 20 dollars? Is this the value for saving the woman you love?"

Anna saw that Hans didn’t seem angry about Elsa observation; he seemed quiet amused and his response confirmed the suspicions of the strawberry blonde.

"Oh, our ice queen is unhappy. What a news." Said Hans.

"Ice Queen? "Thought Anna "What does it mean?"

But the auburn continued. 

"What can we do to please our queen? Oh, I have an idea."

Hans went again toward Anna, who was slightly suspicious about what to do.

"Perhaps you could join us for dinner tomorrow evening, Miss...?"  
"Anna." She said firmly "And yes, sure."  
"Then we’ll wait for you. Excuse me."

Kai seemed satisfied by the offer and followed Hans while he walked away, taking Elsa with him.

Anna would have liked to say goodbye to the girl who was now becoming smaller as they walked away, until they turned the corner and she went out of sight. She sighed. Even the sailors had vanished, so she turned to leave in turn, when suddenly she found herself in front of the butler of Hans. She almost let out a scream.

"What a fright!" She uttered, still trying to suppress the cry that went up in her throat.

She took a few deep breaths, trying to calm down.

"Miss Anna, I allowed myself to collect your jacket." He handed it to her.  
"Oh, uh, thanks?"

She wasn’t convinced of the fact that she was there just for that, so she waited for him to speak again, and it happened shortly after.

"Don’t you think it’s strange that the young lady had slipped so suddenly and you still had time to take off your jacket and run to rescue her? It’s interesting."

Anna looked at him with repressed hatred. She couldn’t help it. She didn’t dare to respond and she stood still in the same position even after the butler had left, refusing to move even a few steps.

 

*

 

Elsa was sitting on a chair, in front of the mirror, brushing her hair. A carillon was playing its music, a soft and nostalgic melody, one of her favorite. She was wearing a nightgown and was almost ready to go to bed, but she was lost in thought. 

Only a few hours ago she was sure that she would have never seen that luxurious room again... 

Only a few hours ago she believed that she would have put an end to all of it... 

Only a few hours ago she was hanging on the railing, ready to jump. 

A thousand of questions were forming in her mind. Would she have jumped? What would have happened then? Was the water as cold as it had been described? Was she so desperate to want to put an end to it?   
After all, it would have been a foolish choice. 

What if Anna hadn’t got her?

Anna .

A smile formed on her lips. She should have thanked her, but how? She had the impression, nay she was sure that Hans had invited her to dinner just to make fun of her. A material present also didn’t seem to suit her. What could she do? She would have to ask Mellow but the waitress was asleep.

A knock on the door pulled her back from her thoughts and made her jump. It was a strong and determined knock, characteristic of a person...

Hans.

The door opened, even if the blonde girl had said nothing, revealing the auburn-haired man.

Elsa looked at him from the mirror and put down the brush, waiting for him to speak, without turning but maintaining the eye contact through the glass and silvery surface.

"I know you’ve been sad. I may not know why but I have a surprise for you."

Elsa raised an eyebrow. She had to admit that these words were surprising in itself.

"I intended to save this until the engagement gala, but after what happened, I thought I could give it to you tonight."

It took a while to Elsa to notice the box he was carrying. Hans walked over and stood next to her, leaning on the desk. He got close to Elsa, closing the carillon and moving it away. 

Another thing she hated of Hans was that: Hans had no respect for anything except money.

She had no time to criticize him further because Hans opened the box, cutting off her breath in her throat.

Inside the box was a necklace shaped like a heart. The heart was of a dark, shiny blue and it absolutely looked like...

"... A diamond?"  
"56 carats to be exact. It was worn by Louis XVI. It was called ‘the blue diamond of the crown’. Later the diamond was cut, taking the shape of a heart, and it was named 'Heart of the Ocean'"

Hans took the diamond and laid it around the neck of the blonde. 

She gasped. 

She didn’t expect such a gift and although she hated the man, she couldn’t take her eyes off from the necklace. It was really wonderful and she told him.

"It’s overwhelming."  
"It’s for royalty." He replied. "It fits with your eyes."

It was true. She couldn’t deny it. 

Everyone would have been pleasantly surprised by the diamond. He tied it around her neck and she reached out to touch it. The surface was smooth and cold against her skin. But the cold never bothered her. It was rather nice.

Hans then bent down and started to talk softly. Elsa continued to stare at him through the mirror.

"You know, Elsa. I can give you everything you want. There is nothing that I would deny you as long as you stay on my side."

The girl then turned and looked into his eyes.

"This is the summation of the feelings I have for you. Do you still think that the value of your life for me is worth only a couple of bucks? Oh no."

Elsa looked back at the mirror. The hand had already left the necklace. 

Hans got up, took her face and with his finger raised her chin.

"You'll be mine, Elsa. Don’t forget this."

He lowered his head and their lips collided with force. Elsa let him kiss her without doing anything, without resistance, until the lips ached. At that point, Hans walked away without a word and he left the room.

Elsa knew what that kiss meant to him and she couldn’t stand it. She couldn’t bear to be the object of anyone. She took off the necklace without grace and put it back in the box where it belonged. 

She didn’t want to become like the men of that ship: greedy, arrogant and hungry for treasures.   
She wanted to enjoy what life had in mind for her, but life gave her nothing but pain.

And once again, heading toward the bed, she resented the familiar feeling of being trapped. She let the tears fall and thought back to Anna.

Anna who smiled for a kiss, Anna who had saved her from the torpid waters, Anna who had made a disgusted face when she heard that they wanted to reward with a few bucks, Anna... who had given value to her life that didn’t contain any sum, any amount of money... just pure and genuine feelings. 

Just affection.

That affection that Elsa had never known.


	10. Invitation

The fresh spring morning was greeted by a pale sun on the horizon. Its colors painted the calm sea where the Titanic was rocked while the pearly sky carried the rosy shades of the dawn. The few clouds present slowly began to dye by the glares of the sun, announcing another wonderful day for the passengers of the huge ship. 

Many of them were still asleep, lost in the world of dreams that soon would have disappeared, but this wasn’t apply to the platinum blonde girl who was staying in the presidential suite. Many people would have taken advantage of that moment of the day to enjoy the breathtaking view that the ship offered and the chilly breeze of the morning that was accompanied by the melodious sound of the waves. Otherwise they could have wisely used that time to prepare for the upcoming day. However the girl in question had other things on her mind.

She was walking back and forth, measuring strode the room, without resting even for a minute. That ritual went on for a while now and even the maid, her only company who was looking at her from the bed, had renounced to make the girl sit.

"I don’t understand!" The blonde snapped, suddenly "Am I sick?"

At first glance it could have been a plausible option: she had dark circles under the eyes, a slightly pale face, trembling hands... She was quiet a mess. But the waitress seemed to know exactly what was wrong with the blonde girl, even though she wouldn’t dare to say it so openly.

"Why do you think this, Miss Elsa?"  
"I don’t know Mel. I... well... My heart is beating so fast, I haven’t slept, there's this warm tingling in my chest I can’t explain and I can’t stop thinking to... to..."

The sentence stopped and Elsa's cheeks turned red. The waitress couldn’t help but grin at the sight. She was watching the blonde girl with a mixture of amusement and sympathy that clearly was confusing Elsa more than she already was.

"Don’t you think it's because of that person that you feel this way?" She tried. 

Elsa looked at her with skepticism, blocking her path.

The blonde had spent the whole night almost sleepless, except when she manage to close her eyes for half an hour. That explained the reason for her slight pallor and dark circles. When her personal maid, Mel, had entered the room that morning, Elsa was already walking nervously back and forth, in a perfect imitation of her current state. When she saw her maid, she immediately ran to hug her warmly, which surprised Mellow. Her first reaction was to believe she was still in bed, victim of some strange dream. After being separated from her, the blonde had started rambling about all that had happened the night before: the escape from the dining room, the meeting with Anna, how she had been saved by Anna on the deck, the kiss on the cheek given to Anna, the arrival of Hans that interrupted the moment with Anna, the necklace given to her by Hans and the evening chat with him, the smile of Anna, the clumsiness of Anna, the eyes of Anna and Anna, Anna and Anna.

She told her the whole story, omitting the fact that she wanted to jump from the deck on her own initiative, as if she accidentally found herself on the cliff of a ship sailing in icy waters in the middle of nowhere... However the waitress didn’t probe further and Elsa was truly grateful of that.

What surprised Elsa was the fact that she wasn’t kept awake by the last, bad talk with Hans but by the memory of a strawberry blonde girl that occupied her mind since last night. She couldn’t understand why Anna had taken her so much. Perhaps was her true smile, her purity, her kindness, her loving ramble, her strength...

"I act as if I were attracted to her." She had thought.

But still... Attraction, between two women? It was impossible.

The thought tormented her for most of the night; she came to the conclusion that the only reason for her behavior was that it had been a long time since she had a new companion other than Mellow. She had no one else. With the arrival of Anna, her savior, her world of isolation and torture had been put under test, but now that she had verified that not all people of the world were hateful and evil, she felt the need to prove herself. She welcomed this wave of innovations with positivity, although this left her with some anxiety to dispose.

No doubt about it though. The cause of her attitude was due precisely to Anna.

She took a deep breath and walked over to the bed, sitting down next to Mellow. She kept her eyes fixed on her feet with a slight blush.

"She is the most genuine person I've ever known." She said in a voice so soft that make her waitress smile.  
"And then there is her smile Mel. Her smile is so, so... I had never seen something so beautiful."

Elsa felt a little pressure on her shoulder. Mel had placed an hand on her and with a certain amount of courage, the blonde caught her eyes. The waitress was looking at her lovingly, with a certain luster in her eyes that she didn’t understand. She took Elsa’s hand and clasped the fingers together. She began to rub them slightly, which seemed to be relaxing.

"Now Miss Elsa, try to calm down a bit. Take a deep breath.”

Elsa obeyed. She breathed deeply until every single millimeter of her lungs was filled with air and then exhale slowly. She repeated the same thing two more times until she felt calm enough.

"Better, Miss?"

At her nod, Mellow kept talking.

"Why don’t you meet the girl after lunch?"  
"What?!”

Before she could get up and resume her walk in the room, Mellow stopped her taking Elsa by the shoulders, preventing her from getting up.

"Come on now! She saved your life! She deserves more than a pompous dinner among those barbarians, don’t you think?”

Mellow actually got a point. They both knew that Hans wouldn’t have been a gentleman with Anna and he would have tried anything to embarrass the poor girl. 

Anna didn’t deserve that.

But even if they had met, what should she do? She knew nothing about friendly meeting or the “how-to-deal-with-people-who-were-not-part-of-the-disgusting-noble-circle” rules.

"Well, if you put it that way. Of course she deserves better. But what I have to do? We meet and... what next? What do you usually talk about? And what can we do?"  
"Only be yourself, Miss."

She snorted.

"That surely simplifies things." Elsa thought. 

Mellow seemed to understand her thoughts because she shook her hands and spoke in a firm and affectionate voice.

"Don’t worry, everything will be fine."

The blonde girl couldn’t help but nod. However Elsa’s eyes suddenly greeted a mischievous tone that the waitress didn’t like and she instinctively stepped back.

"Okay, I will do it." Elsa said "But I can’t go in third class. My mother and Hans would never allow me and the crew knows me..."

Mellow felt a cold sweat drop down along her spine.

"So who could go to deliver the invitation...?"

She put a hand on her chin, as if she was trying to solve a particularly big problem. The waitress knew exactly what was about to come.

"Oh, miss, I don’t think..." Mellow tried to say, but she was interrupted by the voice of Elsa.

"Of course! It could be you! You would do me a great favor. Thanks MarshMellow!"  
"Don’t call me like that..." She whispered softly, in a feeble protest.

Elsa never called the other girl by name and surname unless she was trying to convince the maid to do something or make her perform some favor that she knew Mel didn’t approve. She always pronounced the name with an amused tone, knowing that bothered the other girl, but it was more like a game than anything else for them.  
The blonde girl grinned at the face that her maid made. Getting out of bed, she patted encouragingly on the back of the other girl and walked away toward the room next door by adding only one thing, followed by an occasional wink:

"As you prepare, I’ll write the invitation, so you can take it to her right away."

Mellow didn’t seem offended. Elsa had no friends outside of her for too long and seeing her so radiant and playful made her happy. She was tired of hearing the other girl crying at night, knowing that she couldn’t do anything to comfort her.

After a while she got out of bed, ready to go to her room. Turning her gaze to the other room, she saw a very concentrated Elsa writing the invitation for her savior. Beside her there were already a pile of crumpled sheets, clearly some unsatisfactory attempts thrown away. 

She smiled at her. 

She should thank the girl for making Elsa so happy.

"I'm rooting for you, Anna"

She whispered to the wind and then she left the room without making a sound.

*

The sun had completely risen and the noise of people in movement could be heard in the many corridors of the ship. Most of the passengers were ready to go to breakfast while a small minority, formed mostly by children, was still enjoying their dreams. The third class departments were definitely the noisiest since more than half of the passengers lived in those rooms.

A room in particular, with the plate number G60, stood out among the others for the deafening noise that was producing. Noises and screaming, muffled by the thick door and the walls of the ship, were audible from the outside although no one dared cross the threshold nor knocking.

A scream in particular rattled the ship and scared a lot of people, a scream that sounded like...

"EUGENE!"

Inside the cabin there was absolute chaos. Clothes were strewn on the floor, travel bags were emptied and thrown everywhere and a couple of pans were scattered here and there along the walls.

The boy, Eugene, had tried in every way (successfully) to dodge the flying pans launched by his jealous wife, which explained the deafening strikes heard from the outside, and now he was trying (unsuccessfully) to disappear through the wall. The only weapon he had against the fury of his wife was the same pan that had been recently launched, narrowly missing his beloved nose.

"Eugene. Give me back the pan."  
"No way. You’ll have to pass over my dead body."  
"Fine. I’ll rephrase. Give me the pan or I swear that you will regret to have given a peek at her undergarments, have you heard me? You will b i t t e r l y regret it! And don’t try to use the ‘I have hardly seen anything’ excuse!"  
"But it’s true! In any case, she hadn’t even tried to hide her green pant-"  
"Don’t go over, Eugene!"

Their bickering was going on for half an hour, even though most of the occupants of the room G60 have been already awake. The only exception was left by a strawberry blonde girl who, inexplicably, was still asleep, snoring quite loudly, which would have been heard if only there wasn’t all that fuss in the room.  
Her messy hair had won the battle against gravity and a trickle of saliva had made its way to her cheek ending inexorably on the pillow. She was wearing a very huge blue shirt for her thin body, with a snowflake in the center, reaching up to her thighs, revealing her underwear. The shirt in question was used as a nightgown and made her look like a little girl too grown. She was the cause of the quarrel between the couple, even without knowing it,

Her best friend, Olaf, was sitting on the other bed. He had been awakened by the snort of Rapunzel and Eugene, who were laughing at Anna, especially for her hair that resembled a bird nest. Olaf had explained that there were few circumstances in which the hair of the young girl didn’t end up that way even if he didn’t bother to specify the various conditions. After a while the launch of pans began and the speech was never brought up again.

The boy now felt the duty to intervene and, climbing off from the bunk bed, approached Rapunzel, laying a hand on her shoulder.

"Rapunzel?"  
"Yes?"

The girl turned and her murderous glare was immediately replaced by a calm and relaxed look. He cleared his throat, trying to find the courage needed.

"Um. You know, Anna always sleeps like that. She doesn’t care much and Eugene is right..."

The murderous look returned. Cold sweat began coming down from his back and he closed his eyes, trembling like a leaf.

"W - well... I'm not trying to excuse him! I m-mean… You know… it's hard not to notice..."

The girl sighed and the boy felt safe enough to open his eyes. He saw with relief that Rapunzel seemed to have considered his words.

"I suppose you're right." She said after a while.

Both Olaf and Eugene released their breath, relaxing instantly.

"But next time you won’t be so lucky, Flynn Ri-"  
"Elshaaaa. Anotheeeer one pleease. Hmm."

Rapunzel couldn’t finish the sentence because she had been interrupted by Anna, talking in her sleep. The three people turned and looked at the strawberry blonde girl who was now embracing the pillow, biting and sucking on the piece of cloth that came to her mouth, filling it with saliva. The blissed look on her face was too much exhilarating to say anything.

Their faces went from a shock expression to another one of pure fun and, unable to restrain themselves, they laughed freely until their ribs started to tickle and the tears escaped from their eyes.

"I think it's time to bring her back with us." Rapunzel said.  
"Why? Where did she go? " The reply came from Olaf who looked confused.

The blonde just raised her eyes to the sky. She approached the bed of Anna and bowed, chuckling again at the sight. She slightly shook her.

"Anna...”  
"..."  
"Anna, wake up..."  
"Five minutes..."  
"No, Anna, now!"  
"..."

Rapunzel looked at her exasperatedly . Anna was persistent, she had to admit it. She was thinking about taking her pan and try with that when Eugene announced that he would have taken the seats at breakfast. The blonde girl then got up and, stepping over bags and clothes, went to greet her husband saying just one thing:

"Your turn, Olaf!"

Olaf then took the place of Rapunzel and bowed in turn, resting his hand on the shoulder of the asleep girl.

"Hey, wake up."  
"..."  
"Come on, wake up"  
"..."  
"Why isn’t she waking up?"  
"..."

At that moment Rapunzel returned to his side and they looked at each other with an exasperated look.

"Do you think she knows how to wake up?”

However he didn’t have time to get a response because something wet pushed against Olaf’s hand. He left out a distinct "Ehw!", pulling away the hand from the shoulder of Anna. Apparently the strawberry blonde girl had left the pillow to give a taste of something else, and the first thing that she had found was her best friend. Obviously this was followed by another bout of giggles that this time were interrupted by a knock on the door.

Rapunzel went to open, while the boy tried to clean himself.  
At the door there were Eugene, accompanied by another young girl, apparently a maid. A beautiful girl, no doubt about it, but Rapunzel, accustomed to the perversions of her husband, started to scold him again.

"Eugene!"  
"Wait! Calm down, it’s not what you think! She’s here for Anna."  
"Anna?"  
"Yes. I’ve met her down the hall, looking for information about her. She said she's here in name of Elsa Arendelle."  
"Ah, she really does exists then!”

But their dialogue was stopped there because a certain strawberry blonde girl, hearing that name, had awakened from her sleep. She sat up in a flash screaming incredulously.

"ELSA?!"

This was followed by a loud thud and a groan.

Anna, who was reliving the last-night adventure in her dream, suddenly found herself watching the ceiling with her aching body. But she was sure of one thing: she had heard the word “Elsa”. But in the rush to get up she had dramatically fallen on the thin layer of clothes of the floor, belly up with a foot still safe on top of the bed. Fortunately for her, she wasn’t in the bed above. Anyway, after an initial confusion, she got to her feet and ran to the door.

"You said Elsa? Who said Elsa? Where is Elsa?"

Looking around, she saw that there was no sight of Elsa but another girl who had never seen. She had beautiful green eyes and light brown hair that was pulled back in hasty bun. She wore a classic waitress dress that suited her a lot, although she didn’t seem much older than her.  
Suddenly she became aware of her appearance and she felt the heat on her cheeks. She tried to fix her hair and dispel the traces of the trickle of drool but she was still a mess when she was over. An awkward silence fell among them, broken by the voice of Rapunzel and Eugene a minute later.

"I was going to get those places for breakfast, so see you later!"  
"Oh right. I think I'm going to tidy up the room with Olaf. Bye!"

They both left and the two girls found themselves alone in the hallway.

"Are you Anna Dawson?"  
"The one and only, I would say." 

An embarrassed laugh left her lips and she brushed a strand of hair behind her ear.

The maid then handed her a bluish rectangular envelope. Anna immediately caught the typical scent of mint of Elsa. There was written her name on it and she focused on the way her name was written. There was no smear and the letters were written with the edges slightly curled; they were woven together in a harmonious way. She had never seen a writing so beautiful. She would have given anything to be able to see her name on it thousands of times in hundreds and hundreds of sheets. 

But that wasn’t the point. 

She took the invitation with trembling hands and growing interest in her chest.

"Thank you." She managed to say.  
"Perfect. It has been a pleasure to meet you, Miss Anna. And sorry if I woke you up."  
"No no no, you didn’t. I’ve been up for hours."

And although that was a lie, and they both knew it, no comment was made and everyone went their own way.

When Mellow passed the corner down the hall and went out of sight, Anna started to open the envelope with the greatest care possible in order to be able to keep every little rag of paper.

The sheet inside was white and recited:

"Dear Anna,  
I would like to meet you today at the stroke of the two on the D Deck. I’d like to thank you for the chivalrous gesture of last night and offer you something to drink. I'll wait all afternoon if necessary so your refuse is not allowed. If you agree, we will meet under the clock of the east side of the deck.  
Best regards,  
Elsa Arendelle."

Anna had to reread those lines for four times in a row before realizing what was written. Then she entered the room slowly, with an inexpressive face that left nothing to reveal. This worried both Rapunzel and Olaf.

"Well?"  
"What did she want?"

Anna looked at them emotionless, as if they were kilometers distant. And when the two began to send strange looks to each other and started wondering what misfortune could have happened for having reduced Anna like that, she spoke.

"She sent me to call."  
"Why?! What have you done?" The two chorused.  
"She wants to see me. Thank me. Offer me something to drink."

Rapunzel and Olaf looked at her confused, not understanding the reason for her reaction, but their unspoken question was immediately clarified by the next affirmation.

"I'm dreaming, right? She wants to see me! Me! She wants to see me! This afternoon. I... I'll see her again! I have a date with her. Oh God! I have a date! WITH HER! Olaf! You must help me! You're my love expert!"  
"Love expert? " Rapunzel asked, unaware of the term.  
"I like to consider myself a love expert." The boy replied.

But Anna had already passed to ramble on another.

"I have to find something to wear! I can’t look like a peasant! What am I saying... I have nothing to wear. And she is so beautiful. I can’t go there! I wouldn’t be appropriate! Does this make any sense? Of course not! Nothing makes sense. But if I won’t go she will have to wait. She said she will wait all day. I can’t make her wait! I have to go there now!"

And she headed for the door, only to be stopped by Olaf.

"Brat, stop! It’s probably just 9am! Now calm down and breathe okay? Make deep breaths. Like that, good. At least another… fifty now."

It took a while to calm Anna but the efforts were rewarded when the girl sat on the bed and began to think concretely.

"We have to find something you can wear." Rapunzel said.  
"But I have almost nothing."  
"Don’t worry, I got this!" She winked at her. "You can borrow something of mine!"  
"Oh no, I’m not doing that! " The protest of strawberry blonde girl came but...  
"Come on. Otherwise what are friend for? Come on, let’s find something in this mess that could fit you."

Olaf remained to enjoy the scene for the remaining time.

He was happy to see how things had developed and Anna certainly deserved a bit of love in her life after all she had been through. He found himself smiling at the sight of the two girls immersed in the research.   
A rumbling belly reminded him that they had to have breakfast yet, but seeing the girls so concentrated, he was certainly that was last of their thoughts. At least for Anna and Rapunzel.   
He decided to go alone, looking for Eugene. He should thank the famous Elsa for having made his best friend so happy.

"I'm rooting for you, Elsa" He said in a weak voice.

And he left the room with a smile.


	11. The World Through Her Eyes - Part 1

The deck of the ship was unusually quiet and peaceful. Everyone would have thought that a moment of peace was impossible to be found in the most famous ocean liner in the world, especially when the ship was full of people. But apparently nothing was impossible for the colossus called Titanic.   
There were a couple of explanations to clarify that silence. First of all it was lunch time and then the few passengers who had finished lunch had already retired in the cabins or found their place in some bars. 

However all of this were irrelevant for a certain strawberry blonde girl.

The girl in question was very nervous and she was walking briskly, in the direction of the second floor deck of the ship. The light sound of her footsteps was muffled by the sound of the waves that seemed to be more stormy than the morning. Her two characteristic braids were ruffled, pushed away by the breeze that was rising throughout the day. Suddenly in the air echoed a strange noise, a kind of subdued growl that came from the girl.

"Excellent, Anna, keep forgetting to have breakfast and lunch." She snorted.

Anna had spent all morning in her cabin to prepare with Rapunzel’s help, completely forgetting to eat. Nothing strange, considering what it was going to happen that afternoon. Despite Rapunzel had offered to give Anna a couple of her clothes, in the end she declined the invitation. The blonde girl used to wear elegant dresses, skirts and showy lace everywhere, but Anna preferred simple, male clothes as those she was already wearing. In any case, the presence of Rapunzel was vital: Anna’s clothes were cleaned, patched and arranged according to her measure. Her jade green shirt now had a more feminine aspect and fit perfectly at the girl's body, her sleeves hadn’t to be rolled up anymore and, after a final clean, they seemed even more radiant. The light beige trousers were tight and shortened, in turn, giving the impression of perfectly fit to her body, even though they had been of a couple of sizes bigger than her. Rapunzel also had offered to give Anna her hair ribbons that were placed in each braid. They were a little darker green than her shirt and was long twenty centimeters. According to the girl, the tapes looked better on Anna than on her hair, noting how the sea-blue eyes were accented by their mere presence.

All that preparation took almost all the morning and now that Anna was ready and had asked for advice to Rapunzel, she had started to head towards the place of her dat-… Toward the place of her meeting, although it was only one and a quarter pm.

"She just has to thank me. It's not a d-dat-te-e."  
"Punzie said that everything will be fine. I just have to relax."  
"Be yourself, be yourself, be yourself."

Since she had left the cabin, Anna continued to repeat those phrases, trying to calm herself. She also had started to recall Rapunzel’s precious advices that could be summed up in five simple “rules”:

1\. Stay calm, don’t panic, THINK BEFORE SPEAKING.

"Ok, this is simple. I just have to take a deep breath and don’t be silly. Where is the problem? I’m the most calm, kind and loving person all over the world and I am only about to see the most angelic and wonderful person of the universe!   
Breathe, Anna, breathe."

2\. Make sure you are alone and not accompanied by anyone!

“... If I only see those ridiculous sideburns I swear this time I’ll break his nose. That dirty Bastar-!"

3\. She’s a lady so say goodbye properly.

"Come on Anna, Rapunzel made you a lot of examples. Try to remember. Let's see. I could try with "Good morning Miss Arendelle". Ew, it sounds so horrible. What about "Hello ma'am"! It sounds so gross! Wait, is she married yet? Oh my god, what if she’s married? Maybe I’ll try with "Hello Elsa". I don’t know, I can’t call her by her first name. I already have done it previously, but that was for a valid, very valid reason! I mean, for heaven's sake, she was about to jump into the sea! Uhm. Maybe I could skip the ‘hello’ part and tell her some different thinks, something like: "Hey sweety, not even the moon is comparable to your beauty." Oh God, it sounds so cliché. I give up!"

4\. Find something nice to say.

"It’s not hard to find something nice. She’s so breathtaking. Those ice-blue eyes are always a bit sad but at the same time they hide surprise. Not to mention those long platinum blonde hair that seem to shine every time. Then there's her body, so perfect, and her curves, oh her curves..."

5\. Show her your strengths and don’t try to say that you don’t have them! Well yeah, maybe you are a bit messy, childish, blatant, clumsy, awkward, eccentric, exuberant, impulsive, but you also have a heart of gold! You are kind and caring! Focus on these things!

"Is this an advice at all? It’s not helping!"

She continued that line of thought for a long time while she unconsciously headed towards the meeting place. It seemed that when she wasn’t focused on the path to follow, her orientation worked much better and she found herself near the B deck very early. She walked to the open corridor that would have taken her to the deck and she hugged the sketchbook she had brought with her. It had no monetary value but it was her special treasure. It was also considered a good luck charm. The album was one of the two things she never separated from. The other thing was the pendant of her mother that emerged from her shirt, of which you could only see the gold chain.

She remained lost in thought even when, arrived at a crossroads, she turned to the right rather hastily, without looking, until she felt something slamming against her. Instinctively she reached out to grab the thing that was falling because of their clash. As soon as her hand closed, her body was pervaded by a slight shudder and a familiar feeling took hold of her.

At that moment all thoughts of the last hours were wiped to leave the place to a single, simple thought:

"My angel is here."

*

The corridor outside the suite was pretty quiet. Both the crew and the other first class passengers weren’t seen anywhere and the only thing moving was a platinum blonde young girl. She was experimenting a very similar situation to the other girl who was some decks farther from her: she was walking briskly and nervously, her heels were echoing on the surrounding walls, her face and her features were showing a certain anxiety in anticipation of what would have happened shortly thereafter.  
Plus, she kept muttering to herself nonsense words of encouragement. Something like:

"You've faced worse things. You're an Arendelle! Obviously you've faced worse things. Stay calm Elsa, stay calm, stay calm..."

Elsa had spent most of the morning sleeping.

When her maid, Mellow, left the room with the invitation for Anna, she lay in bed and the sleep that she hadn’t had the night before, finally arrived. She had fallen asleep with a smile on her face, thinking about what she had just done, but the bliss lasted for a very short time. When Mel woke her up a few hours later, the anxiety came back to her like a wave during a storm, putting her in a pure and complete state of chaos. The clock seemed frighteningly close to the 2pm, and every decision she had to take seemed to have become the most difficult choice of the universe, although in a normal situation, the whole thing would have been rather simple.

She had forced her maid to spend all morning with her to solve her whims: what dress I wear, what shoes I match, how do I brush my hair, will she come or not, what do I have to do to start a conversation and all the other, futile or not, questions that passed through her head.

Finally she chose a simple teal dress, with a sweetheart bodice and a pretty long skirt. It had bronze trim and some gracious embroidery. On the short black sleeves, she wore a small magenta cape to protect herself from the wind that could be present that afternoon. She also chose to braid her hair in a classic French braid, collected in a bun, which made her look more mature.

After being forced by Mellow to eat at least a piece of bread with eggs - which were uncomfortably tight in her throat -, she began to start toward the B deck, although it was quiet early.

But soon she realized that the words of self-encouragement were not working as she hoped.

"Don’t worry, she says. Everything will be fine, she said. She has no idea, no idea how hard it’s for me to do such a thing. She’s a waitress! It's all simple for her! She’s used to this sort of thing. On the other hand, I have never met anyone outside of all those noble lords or those illustrious citizens. What if she will get uncomfortable? I don’t want her to leave because of me.”

"Mel said I have to be myself. How can I be myself when I don’t even know who I am? For them I’m only a noble of the oldest families of the time, an Arendelle, and soon a Southern, the one who will have the honor to marry the charming Hans Southern. But am I really just that?"

"Mel always says I’m reserved. I can’t blame her. She also says that I’m kind and selfless. But she always sees the good in people. Maybe it's true that I have some qualities. Well certainly I’m smart and careful, I can’t deny it, and I believe her. But what I see instead it’s only a fragile girl, full of remorse and assertive. I'm sure she will never come to our meeting. Maybe I should go back to the cabin."

For a few minutes she convinced herself that the idea of inviting Anna to spend the afternoon with her was stupid. Probably the girl wasn’t interested in spending time with her. When that thought occupied her mind, she stopped and wondered if she should have to go back or if she had to move on.

Was there some hope that Anna would have shown up?

Or was it better to go back in the cabin and lock the door?

Would she really came just to see me?

"It's a beautiful name."   
The words that the strawberry blonde girl uttered jumped to her mind.

"Ann-I mean, Miss Dawson thinks that I have a beautiful name." 

And that thought was enough to make her blush.

Once again she found herself thinking about the night before and those unexpected events. On the other hand she had promised herself not to look behind anymore and to indulge. Enough with the ‘Conceal, don’t feel, don’t let them know’ thing. It was time to face her fears.

She would have given her a chance.

She started to walk again, coming in a short time near the site of the meeting. Only a curve and a few meters separated her from the meeting point. She didn’t give the time to herself to slow down when she turned the corner and that was probably the reason why she bumped into something.

She felt like if she were falling in slow motion. She closed her eyes, ready to suffer the blow and the pain that would have followed, but what she didn’t expect was to be grabbed by someone. That grip, that touch, seemed familiar and almost nostalgic. 

It was then that she realized who was in front of her, and her mind was able to come up with a single thought:

"She has come." 

*

Their touch was enough to recognize each other, even before their eyes came into contact and they also realized that their thoughts were directed to each other in the last hours. A breath of wind woke up the two girls from their numbness and it was then that the sea-colored eyes met those of ice again and their essence returned to intertwine. The spring scent pushed through the fragrance of winter and all the security that had been lost during their separation was found instantly, as if they had never really gone away.

"Oh , I'm sorry!" Elsa began to say. 

She was the first to recover from that sudden encounter.

"I wasn’t looking where I was standing and then you came out from nowhere and I didn’t see you coming and I thought I would have hit the ground and instead you've held me, and..."

And while she rambled, Anna could only watch the woman in front of her eyes with a dash of fun and growing affection, focusing on every detail of her dress and every little detail of her face. Pale skin perfectly matched to the color of her eyes, as much as a cup of chocolate would be well accompanied by a chocolate cake, not to mention her small and tender pink lips that seemed to be made of sugar, and only in that moment Anna noticed how hungry it was really, but...

"Wait. Are those freckles? Aww, how cute."

She realized that she had begun to ramble in her thoughts just like Elsa, even if the other girl was expressing them aloud.

"...You continue to appear in my life just like that, out of nowhere, and every time it becomes so embarrassing to talk to you and-"  
"Wow Elsa, I didn’t know how much you love to fall at my feet”. Anna interrupted her.

As she finished the sentence, she had already regretted to have spoken because Elsa sent her a scary look, a look that reminded her...

A loud slap hit her in the face.

... The moment when she had been slapped in the evening before.

"Déjà vu." She found herself muttering.  
"And just to let you know, it’s Miss Elsa is for you!" The girl continued, crossing her arms and turning her head to the side.

Anna grinned at the sight of her gorgeous pout.

"Oh I 'm so sorry Milady." She said it in a false tone of displeasure.

She leaned forward in a perfect imitation of a bow.

“Since you were speaking to me with that confidence tone, it was spontaneous for me answering like that.”

She winked. Elsa didn’t understand immediately what she meant and was confused for a while until she realized that she had referred to Anna like she was an old friend for all that time.  
She winced, putting an hand to her mouth with a clear expression of terror on her face. She prepared to apologize but she couldn’t say a single word that the strawberry blonde girl interrupted her immediately.

"No excuses. Don’t worry. In return we will forget that we are of two different social classes and try to be friendly to each other. You agree?"  
"Of c-course yes, who do you think I am?"

Anna had to admit that that shy and grumpy side of Elsa was really adorable. She wished to know every aspect Elsa’s life and every aspect of her personality because each new side was a new part of her that she could love.

She smiled.

Another of those warm smiles of Anna that surprise Elsa. Although she insisted to keep her pout, Anna never lost the sight on the other girl. She could clearly see a new spark in Elsa’s eyes that brought with it an happiness that she clearly never felt before.

And that was when they both left aside their own problems, their own doubts and misgivings, and stripped of any mask, any barrier that prevented them to appear from what they really were. They prepared to be known for their values, for their true selves and the words of Rapunzel and Mellow seemed to echo in the air:

"Be yourself."

Finally they understood the meaning of those words. 

The atmosphere was interrupted by a soft sound, much like a growl, coming from Anna. She blushed and she was sure that now her face had the same color of a tomato.

"Please tell me that she hasn’t heard, please..."

But her wish didn’t come true since shortly thereafter Elsa started to laugh, with her right hand over her mouth. She laughed so much that at some point she had to hold her belly.

"Yes, make fun of me. Pff.” Anna sighed; she wanted to hide under the wooden boards of the floor.  
"I-I'm sorry... it was… so... unexpected..." She said between a laughter and another.

It was Anna's turn to pout. 

Elsa wiped an elusive tear and then reached out toward the girl.

"Shall we go?”

The strawberry blonde girl stared at the hand of the other girl for a while, surprised of that initiative, but she had no doubts about what to do. She reached her hand and squeezed it in order not to lose the grip on it. She let herself be dragged all the way, thinking that if that was what the future had in mind for them, she wouldn’t have complained.


	12. The World Through Her Eyes - Part 2

A/N: Sorry for the delay, guys!

 

"I can really order what I want?! Are you serious? I mean, everything cost so much. I would have to sell an house for eating here! And I don’t even have an house! I can’t believe it. They are thiev-"

A barely audible laughter cut her sentence in half.

"Don’t worry, I’ll pay for you! Take it as a thank you for saving me." 

Anna thought she was joking.

She wasn’t.

Elsa and her were sitting on a small tables of the most luxurious café that the ship could offered. The sun was illuminating the room with its rays that penetrated through the windows on the side, while the light of the chandeliers lit up the corners that the sunlight didn’t reach. 

The atmosphere was inebriating. 

Near the girls, there was one of those window. It gave a magnificent view of the sea around them that seemed to hypnotized those who watched at its waves. 

The bartender was looking at the two, dazed, wondering how such a strange couple could have met each other. He continued to clean his glasses professionally, without saying a word, waiting to take the orders from the girls.  
A little further a pair of old ladies were playing cards in the hall opposite to them, sipping tea now and then and listening the little spat between the two.

"But-"  
"I insist."  
"But-"

The ice look of the blonde girl calmed the protest immediately. At that point, only one thing was possible.

“All right."

To agree with her.

When Anna had entered in the café, a few moments before, she had been pleasantly surprised. In particular she had been attracted by the creamy colors of the place: the iron wrought tables were white and they stood out against the dark mahogany walls around them. Her first thought was she had entered in a house made of chocolate, which didn’t help to handle her hunger.

Elsa was behind her, observing Anna’s reaction. In her point of view, the place wasn’t so special. It was just a place as many others. They were all like that, weren’t them? Chandeliers, fine wood, bottles of expensive liquor... As usual.  
But that time there was something that made it difference: the presence of a certain girl by her side. She would have never thought that there could be someone so adorable as her.

The spell ended when Anna's stomach growled again. Elsa have chosen their seats since the other girl seemed to be too embarrassed to even lift her head and look at her, but now that they had the menu in their hands, the embarrassment was forgotten.

"I think I'll take a chocolate mousse! Oh, and a hot chocolate! " Anna said, excited.  
"Oh, you like chocolate?"  
"No I don’t”

Elsa looked confused. How could a person order so much chocolate if she didn’t liked it? It was weird. She opened her mouth to ask for an explanation but the other girl anticipated her.

"I love it! There is a difference, isn’t it?" And she winked.

She should have anticipated it. She was Anna, after all.

"Without doubt." She found herself answering.

When the bartender arrived, Anna told him her order with a so palpable excitement that Elsa struggled to hold back a laugh. When her turn came, she ordered a hot chocolate too. At the mention of it, Anna's eyes widened. 

"You too?!"

But Elsa had an answer ready that time and, with a tone very similar to the strawberry blonde one, she said:

"I love it!" with the same wink that Anna had done previously.

Anna didn’t reply. She simply smiled. The same smile she had on the deck when they had met each other.

Which reminded something to Elsa...

"Didn’t I told you to wait near the clock?"  
"Uhm, yeah, why?"  
"You were going the wrong way."

Anna looked at her, assuming she was joking, but - again - she wasn’t.

"The wrong way?!" She thought. "That would explain why at that crossroads we clashed. Don’t tell me...I did it again! I almost get lost again!"

So her orientation was bad under any circumstances. How shameful. She tried to find an excuse.

"I-I must have been confused. This ship is so big."  
"Oh? Really?"

Irony. It was clear she didn’t believe her. The excuse didn’t work. Anna swallowed, not daring to utter a word, waiting for Elsa to speak first. Her next question came shortly thereafter.

"What about last night? What were you doing on the deck?"  
"Oh, I know how to answer to this! I was looking at the stars. The sky was awake, so I was awake!"

It was bizarre. But apparently she would have to accept that side of the strawberry blonde girl; Anna was surprising, she had to admit it.

"You're strange." 

Anna smiled.

"I know."

But the question triggered in Anna the memory of the night before and the situation where Elsa was. She could imagine what was passing through the head of the other girl, although she didn’t know anything. She assumed a serious expression, earning the attention of the blonde girl.

"I was wondering what happened on the deck last night..." She muttered. Elsa’s face dropped and sadness took over.

"How can someone so beautiful be so sad?" Anna wondered to herself.

Elsa didn’t answer. She looked down and wrapped her arms around her chest while painful memories started to create in Elsa’s mind. Anna didn’t linger over, regretting of having said such a thing. She leaned forward, trying to fix what she had done, and took her hand, squeezing it strongly.

Elsa stared at their joined hands. She focused her thoughts in the strong hold of the other girl, in her soft and rough at the same time skin, as confirming its beauty and, at the same time, her strength. Looking up, she got lost again in the features of Anna's face. Her rosy cheeks full of freckles, the lively tones of her skin, her strawberry hair and in particular her eyes, sometimes elusive, sometimes so intense she had to look away.

Despite her watery eyes , she smiled at the girl in front of her who was still holding her hand, a smile that let anxiety and sadness glided away.

"Here, ladies."

The two jumped and left their hands quickly. They were so taken by their intimate moment that they didn’t notice the arrival of the bartender with their orders.

Again, the difference between the two girls couldn’t be more obvious.  
The blonde girl sipped her hot chocolate with grace and manners, while the other was tasting - with the joy of her stomach - her mousse so fast that she devoured it in a few spoonful. Followed by the hot chocolate, another mousse, and then another one.

Finally satisfied, Anna leaned back roughly in her chair, with an happy sigh and she began to look at the other girl, enchanted by the firm but calm movements of her hand as she drank from her cup.  
Elsa looked to the other girl and couldn’t suppress the smile impressed on her face. She finished drinking her chocolate, exchanging glances from time to time.

She jumped when Anna appeared in front of her all of a sudden.

Her face was close.

Too close.

Her hand was approaching her mouth and she was staring at her intensely.

The heart of Elsa missed one… 

Two... 

Three beats. She felt the warmth of Anna fingers on her lips, her lovely touch and then... it disappeared.

"You had a bit of chocolate." Anna said, turning her attention to the finger.

Elsa looked at her, suspended in the midst of vague thoughts, starting to realize. 

"Ah." She murmured, touching her lips with her hand, as if she were reminding the emotion she had just lived.

It made sense. 

She lost another beat when she saw the chocolate-dirty finger in Anna’s mouth.

She felt jealous of that finger for a moment, drowning in embarrassment when she understood her own thought. She kind of felt ashamed of herself.

Anna watched Elsa’s blush and enjoyed her beauty, as if she was looking at a rare event, like a bright comet in the sky.

"Delicious, don’t you think?" Anna muttered eloquently, raising her brow with a bold attitude.

She had tasted her scent closely. Elsa smelled of yearning. She was so close to kiss her… That indirect kiss alone was enough to high her spirits. Now she was thirsty, thirsty of her. She was hypnotized.

Elsa didn’t answer immediately. She was lost in watching Anna’s lips grinning as her eyes. They sparkled.  
Everything was new to her, new and confused. What was that feeling? And despite the chaos in her head, there was one thing she was sure of: she liked this feeling. More than she could imagine.

"Yeah." She said, taking the towel and wiping calmly. "Delicious." Her voice was warm.

She saw Anna blushing and changing the direction of her gaze.

They began to talk, as if nothing had happened, but both girls managed to capture the excitement, which was still present around them. Their hands trembled and a bubble of happiness seemed to swell within them, absorbing their body and limbs.

It was a wonderful feeling.

Even better: Delicious.

*

The girls were talking since two hour. Their orders had been consumed a lot of time ago and they had been recently replaced by two simple glasses of water. Both had learned many things about each other and, without knowing it, they shared a thought:

"I want to know everything about her."

Elsa had discovered that Anna’s favorite color was green, in all its shades and variations, that she had tasted chocolate for the first time at the age of two years and fell in love with it right away, and that she had always lived in poverty, traveling from place to place through the exchange of favors or concessions of good-hearted people.  
As she already knew from the night before, the girl was originally from Wisconsin. She had moved from America to Canada, and there she found a lift to Europe. She had stopped in Norway where she met her traveling companion, Olaf, and then they visited together France, Italy and Denmark to end up in England. When she asked why she was returning to America, Anna hadn’t answered. Her smile left her face for a second, and her eyes fell on the waves of the sea beyond the window. Her hand went to close to a chain around her neck. Elsa hadn’t noticed it before. Whatever was the reason, it seemed it was important to Anna. She didn’t lingered over.  
She had also noticed that she used to take a lock of hair behind her ear when she was agitated or nervous and she started to ramble very often. She also wasn’t embarrassed to talk about her origins, in fact, she seemed to be proud of it.

Meanwhile Anna had discovered that Elsa’s favorite color was blue, specifying that she liked the cobalt blue and that, to her amazement, Elsa had the opportunity to taste chocolate only at the age of ten. Since then she had always kept a box of chocolates hidden in her room. As it was easy to understand, Elsa came from a noble family but in that period they were experiencing a bad situation because of the debts of her deceased father. She also discovered that the guy she met the night before, Hans, was none other than her future boyfriend, although Elsa didn’t seem to love him at all. The only trips she had made were those from a noble family to another and, at the time, they were returning from some kind of major celebration of some family friends. She then discovered that the mysterious Mellow was the maid of Elsa and her only friend. Elsa then loved art. She had spent a good ten minutes talking about how beautiful Picasso paintings and other composers of the era were, leaving a dreamy and speechless Anna to listen to her. Anna then noticed that Elsa laughed with a hand over her mouth and every time seemed to face an internal battle when it came to how to behave at the table: when she let herself free and noted to have a wrong posture, she returned to be rigid and "perfect" in a rush, as if she was afraid to get punished because of that.

The questions they wanted to make to each other were so many that after two hours of talk, it seemed they were still at the starting point...

"Wait, what? You are my same age? Impossible! You look older. I m-mean, not old like granny old, just more mature."  
"Well, thanks. I will turn eighteen in July."  
"Uh? So I'm older!" And this somehow seemed to please her. She smiled mischievously. "I will turn eighteen next month."

Elsa then couldn’t help herself:   
"Well then, happy birthday!"

Anna looked shocked, as if she had just cursed or something like that.

"Are you crazy? It’s a bad luck sign! Now I won’t have an happy birthday! Oh no!"

And theatrically, she puts her hand on her forehead, slipping on the chair where she was sitting with an expression of mock pain in the face.

Elsa laughed. Staying with Anna was all she needed to be happy. Just her presence was enough to patch up the wounds of her heart and give color to her world. And she know for sure that for Anna was the same. She saw it in her eyes, the certainty of having found someone special. It was comforting.

"Elsa... Arendelle." whispered then the strawberry blonde girl. "I was wondering if you had a middle name."

Elsa blushed. That was enough to give the answer to Anna.

"Oh! Come on, tell me! I’ll tell you mine if you tell me yours"

She considered her proposal. At that point she thought she had nothing to lose. She said it.

"Elsa Marie Idun Arendelle.  
"Well then, nice to meet you, Elsa Marie Arendelle Idun. I’m Anna Lily Dawson."

She took her hand, but that time it was different.

She didn’t squeezed it.

Instead she brought it close to her mouth slowly, lowering her head and going to meet halfway the back of her hand with her lips, joining them.

And while Anna praised that gesture with thoughts like "Oh my God! I always wanted to do it! I kissed her hand as all the princes do with their princesses! And oh my God oh my God oh my God, I really did it! ", Elsa was completely haywire. She had never felt so warm and red in the face. If ears could smoke, she was sure hers would have been completely on fire.

For the second time that afternoon she found herself confused and speechless, at the mercy of some emotion that she didn’t understand. But it was so comfortable somehow.

Anna had to wave her hand in front of her face a few times to get her attention again.

"Hey, is there anyone?"  
"Wh-what? "  
"You got enchanted."

Oh yes, enchanted was the right word. Anna must knew some sort of spell to make her feel that way. It was magical and oh my, it was beautiful.

"Wait, what? Get back on Earth, Elsa!"

"Y-yes, I'm sorry, I got distracted."

Soon they returned to their round of questions: their favorite food (chocolate excluded), their favorite hobby, their favorite animal and it turned out that Anna loved the sandwiches, she would have spent the whole day looking at the stars and envied foxes for their cunning and agility while Elsa loved pasta, reading books and she would have really wanted to be a bird to be free to fly wherever she wanted.

"So, where are your parents now?" Elsa asked.

Anna resumed her bleak and distant look.

So Elsa understood why Anna was returning home. And it broke her heart.

"I hope they are in a better place, where they can look at me and be proud of me."

And she smiled again despite Elsa could see how much the memory of them was still so painful for her and how much the girl missed them. In her eyes she could see how much those people were important to her.  
And how she continued to love them, steeling herself for them, and Elsa wondered how she could even smile again.

"How..?" She whispered.

Anna didn’t seem to understand the question immediately.

"...Why are you still smiling? They're gone forever, right?"  
"No."

Her tone was determined, so determined to send a shiver down Elsa’s bones.

"Just because I can’t hug them it doesn’t mean that they are gone. They will always be here in my heart. As long as I will keep alive their memory they will live with me. This is why I can’t afford to be sad. They gave me life, I'm not going to throw it away."

Anna was fighting against tears now, even if her smile didn’t waver even for a second.

"They must have been wonderful parents. I’m sure they would be so proud of you."  
"I know. I’m proud of them too."

A tear ran fugitive on Anna's face.

She didn’t know why she said these things to Elsa but, between the two, Elsa seemed definitely the most fragile one. If there was one thing she wanted to do, that was definitely bringing back the girl's faith: faith in life, faith in happiness, faith in love. On the deck, the night before, her eyes were full of fear and suffering. But now she could clearly distinguish a glimmer of hope. She could see the desire to believe that life isn’t only suffering and cruelty and that it hid much more, something more valuable.

Anna wanted to show that it was possible, that it wasn’t all a fantasy.

"Elsa. Your parents love you too."

The blonde winced and snorted at these words.

"I don’t think so." She said, feeling the anger raising in her chest. "No one would put his family at risk for money. Look at my father. He filled himself with debts that he knew he couldn’t pay and then he dumped them all over us. And my mother. My mother that sold me to a man just because it was the easiest way for her."

She felt frustrated and was losing control. Perhaps Anna would have considered her a mad crybaby and she would have gone, like everyone else.

"Don’t go away." She thought.

But there was no need to pray and hope for her to stay because Anna didn’t go anywhere. She did even better: she tried to soothe her pain.

"You know, sometimes people see in money the power of dreams to come true. They believe that money can buy everything valuable: cars, huge villas, elegant clothes, love... Your parents are simply victims of this corrupt world. This doesn’t mean that they don’t love you. Nowadays we can’t do anything but use masks and hide our feelings. This is a shame, isn’t it? Because there is nothing more beautiful to show to a person how much you love her."

Tears had begun to descend from both girls eyes, streaking their faces. The world around them had collapsed. They were alone to fight with their own confused feelings, to externalize every little fear and weakness, to find comfort in each other's presence.

"W-what if you end up hurting yourself?" Elsa asked.  
"Sometimes it’s inevitable. The important thing though is to get up and fly even higher"

When Elsa opened her mouth to protest, Anna anticipated her.

"And don’t you dare to tell me you can’t do it. I know you can, you just have to believe in yourself."  
"How can I believe in myself when I don’t even know who I am?"

Anna then leaned forward and cupped her face in her hands, pinching her cheeks.

"You want to know what I see?"

Elsa nodded.

"I see a person who is afraid to love despite her heart is full of love. I see a person who is able to deal with many difficulties and had the force to stand straight onto her legs without help but who hasn’t realized it yet. I see a person who can write her own destiny if she doesn’t like what it has been decided for her."

Anna smiled and removed her hands from her cheeks and put her index finger on the nose of Elsa.

"Finally, I see a wonderful person, with beautiful freckles barely visible on the nose, which are the end of the world!"

Elsa chuckled. Apparently the strawberry blonde girl was really a unique person. Being with her was refreshing. And it warmed her heart.

She wiped her tears and nodded again, that time with a smile.

"If it is still not enough, I'll show you the world the way I see it. Come with me!"

And even if that statement was bizarre, at the time, it seemed like the easiest thing to do.

Elsa let herself be dragged out of the bar, letting Anna’s essence took hold of her.

With Anna, everything seemed to become easier.

Everything seemed to be full of meaning.

With Anna, everything seemed true.


	13. Something To Fight For

One thing was sure: she had never imagined to fully recall the memories of those days on the Titanic or to find herself talking about the sweet and awkward girl to the crew of a ship that had the task of bringing old artifacts to the surface. The cabin had become, as the story went on, more and more crowded. Most of the sailors and engineers had suspended their work and left their positions on the ship to listen to her adventure and now they were all sitting around her.

She had always wondered how it would have been to tell those events to people who weren’t present at the disaster but it wasn’t how she had imagined it. All that attention embarrassed her a little, but that didn’t stop her to keep talking. The sailors were hanging on her words and were so immersed in the story to have their mouth wide open. They were staring at nothing in particular, trying to turn those words into images in their mind.

After the initial disruption of that fool researcher, Kristoff Bjorgman, the narration continued for the better and Elsa stopped herself only a few other time for simple requests for water or the addition of details.   
The only person who was allowed to interrupt the story was her niece, Joan, and it was exactly what she did at that moment.

"Granny, did you follow her?" 

Elsa smiled at the memory. 

"It would be more accurate to say that she pulled me out of that café by force" she chuckled "But yes, I went with her. It was one of the best days of my life. I haven’t ever regretted it." 

A series of "Oooh" followed this statement and she blushed slightly. 

"And where did you go?" Joan asked .  
"We went on the outside deck to see the clouds." 

A new voice entered the conversation. It was the first real interruption since the beginning of the story. 

"The clouds?" He snorted. 

Turning her head, Elsa meet the gaze of that reindeer man, Sven, and she glared at him. However it didn’t impressed the guy since he continued to speak without problem.

"How is looking at the clouds anything romantic? It's a waste of time, isn’t it? I don’t understand what women find in those stupid- Ouch!" 

Kristoff elbowed him and, in an alarmed tone, whispered: "Sven! Shut up!" 

Apparently, Elsa’s murderous look had been well received by all the other sailors who seemed ready to run right away. When Sven looked at the two platinum blondes women, he froze. Both the old lady and her niece had a very scary look on her face and the exact same features. No one dared to speak again.

Elsa seemed satisfied. 

"Yes, Mr. Reindeer, the clouds." She said in a calm and slow tone, which made the words seems scarier. 

Sven swallowed.

He went to search comfort from his best friend with his eyes but he still seemed to be angry with him.

”What?" Sven asked, confused.   
" You've made her angry. Are you happy? Now she won’t speak to me anymore!" Kristoff whispered.  
"Who? The granny?"   
"Certainly not the granny, Sven! I mean Joan!"

Sven rolled his eyes and ignored him. That new Kristoff was definitely out of his league. He didn’t understand all those thing about romance and love. Anyway, he waited for Elsa to continue her story, stopping the protest. 

Joan was encouraging her with kindness.

"Tell us, grandma, please. What happened then?"

Elsa let out a sigh and sank even further in the chair. She closed her eyes to focus on the memory of that day and, for a moment, she thought she heard the voice of Anna in her head.

"Follow me!"

She started again talking, with those words echoing in her mind. 

She took my hand and she dragged me to the bow of the ship with all her energy. She told me she knew a great place to spend the afternoon. We reached a bench and, to be honest, I was so disappointed. How could she consider that bench something magnificent? Of course, the wood was prized and the ornaments were refinished perfectly but I didn’t understand. She made me sit down. 

"Close your eyes. Don’t peek! I see you." 

I wondered what was so special about that place to make her so happy. 

"Ok, now, lie down. Like that, good. And... open your eyes."

She made me look up and all my disappointment vanished at once, as if there had never been. Above me there were an endless crystalline surface, covered by clouds of all shapes and colors, with faint rays that were trying to pass through them.

In front of me I saw the infinite. 

For someone like me, used to stay locked in a cage, it seemed like paradise. I had been so wrapped up in the darkness that I had never looked around me. The beauty that was in front of my eyes was indescribable and I haven’t been aware of it since then. It looked almost like a dance where light and darkness were fighting to decide who had to lead the ballet.

Then she came and showed me all that. 

"Stop looking at your feet. Look up, keep your head up, be strong. Find something to fight for. There's a beautiful world out there, you just have to know where to look." 

That girl had a gift. She could understand people just by looking at them. She made me feel a better woman. She taught me simplicity. Just looking at the sky made me realize what I had lost in those years. Around me everything smelled of life. The life that I hadn’t lived yet. I felt the air wrap and fill my lungs with hope. And she was there. For me. I saw the light for the very first time.

It was the first day I felt I could do anything."

She paused and took a deep breath.

"Oh Grandma, it's so sweet" Joan said.

Elsa finally opened her eyes and smiled to her niece.

"It really is. And she taught me another important thing."  
"What is it?"

Joan’s curiosity was palpable. 

She heard Anna's voice another time in her head, as a reminder. 

"Sadness doesn’t suit you."

The girl had said those words with one of her beautiful smiles and her eyes full of joy.

She would have given anything to see her again.

She missed her so much...

She felt tears forming in her eyes but she pushed them back.

Instead of crying, she smiled and looked toward Joan, answering to her question.

"She taught me the power of a smile."

*  
"S-stop Anna, i-it tickles!"  
"Never!"

The familiar screams of a woman were echoing in the bow of the ship since a few minutes. Her cries were barely audible above the howling wind of that afternoon, so this time no one had rushed there to check for any problems.  
However you could clearly tell the difference between the screams of the night before and those currently in progress: they were screams of joy, pure joy.

Elsa had been watching the sky for half an hour, remaining completely enchanted by it. Anna’s words had been full of hope and her soul was so wishful for a positive change in her life that they seemed like bread for her. She had let herself being lulled by the torpor that her partner emanated with those thoughts in mind and she had spent the time relaxing. 

She has been close to fall asleep when Anna suddenly had jumped at her, attacking her hips and starting the most relentless tickle ever.

The worst thing was that Anna didn’t seem to want to give up her assault. The blonde was about to beg for mercy when she finally gave her a truce.

"If your purpose is to kill me, you’ve almost succeeded." She said between a gasp and the other but in a clearly amused tone.  
"Don’t worry, princess, I would never do it."

Anna didn’t realize what she had said until she saw Elsa’s stunned look and the change in color of her face which was of a thick shade of red.

A few seconds later the face of the strawberry blonde wore the same expression and she began to think a thousand things in her mind:

"Princess?! Really, Anna?"  
"I didn’t want to say that! Oh God, what am I going to do?!"  
"I should have said something more intelligent!"  
"I could call it beauty, but oh, it sounds so like Eugene."  
"I should close my mouth forever!"  
"…Princess is beautiful."

But the damage had already been done. Damage. Could she really call it like that? Anyway, she took a deep breath and she said the first thing that came to her mind.

"Yes, well, nice weather, huh?"

Looking around she realized that staying silent would have been the best thing to do. The weather was everything but nice: the wind had brought with it a lot of clouds and the sky had taken a much darker hue, almost ready to announce a storm.

Elsa was still watching her with that stunned face and silence fall between them. Silence that was interrupted by a laughter. Elsa’s laughter. She doesn’t even know what for but laugh was so spontaneous with Anna near her and now there she was, showing one of her most adorable pouts that did nothing but increase her laughing.

When the blonde calmed down, Anna let out a little snort.

"Are you done?" She said in a barely audible tone.  
"I'm s-sorry. Your f-face was beautiful!"

She was still catching her breath but Anna crossed her arms, still pouting. Elsa needed all her self-control not to burst out laughing again. Instead she took the opportunity to approach her and tease her a bit.

"Come on, Miss Dawson. Don’t be grumpy."

She went to pinch her cheek with her hand but the other girl remained impassive.

"Smile at me, come on. Sadness doesn’t suit you."  
"And don’t use my own sentences against me!"

But at this point her sulking had already faded. She reached out to Elsa and pinch her cheek too who squeaked in response.

"Hey, you hurt me!"

It was Anna’s turn to laugh.

"Oh, the baby princess is going to cry!" She said jokingly and Elsa glared at her, ready to assault again.

So the two find themselves chasing each other on the deck, teasing each other.

Their laughter echoed again across the bow of the ship, mixed with the sound of the sea and wind. Their laughter were like music for both girls.

It was amazing how in such a short time they had managed to bond. They were already indispensable to each other, even if they still didn’t know how much. Their problems were forgotten and left aside when they were together and even if they returned to the surface, they both would have been willing to face them and fight for the happiness of their own half.

Whatever fate had been decided for them, they would have deal with it just like that. Together.

"I can’t believe it." Elsa said, settling back on the bench.  
"Believe to what?"  
"How much you can be rude, impolite and arrogant."

Anna grinned, rolling her eyes.

"Oh, really? Poor princess. Have to deal with such people."  
"Exactly. I invited you here to thank you and instead I spent the whole afternoon running after you!" She snorted.  
"But you had a good time."  
"Yes, sur-"

But she actually couldn’t allow that. She was a lady, for God's sake. And ladies don’t chase people and, sure enough, they don’t let themselves be dragged around the ship in a so little graceful way either. Where was her composure, her good manners?

"You're so irritating."

Exactly.

Anna was looking at her amused in front of that futile attempt to regain all of a sudden some dignity. Why was she even trying to hide the fact that she had had a good time? She has been so happy!

"Certainly." She answered, with the same playful tone of before.

And again, looking at her, Elsa realized that something was changing in her. It was like a feeling of warmth that went from her chest to every part of her body. It was a foreign emotion to her but she couldn’t find anything wrong with that.

"She's so beautiful." She found herself thinking, and immediately she felt the need to be distracted from a so intense and unknown thought.

"Y-you know what? What is that thing you always bring with you?"

Elsa’s voice tremble but if Anna had felt it, was unknown since she didn’t point it out. Instead she lowered her head to the bench, where her sketchbook was.

Elsa reached out and took it.

She had to admit that it was a little heavy. At first glance it seemed only a bad book with battered pages but, as soon as she realized, the “book” wasn’t ruined. Just old. It had been kept very well even if you could feel the edges of the outer cover worn by time. It could have had twenty years or more. Those sheet she through was torn pages were simply drawing paper.

"You draw?"

Opening it, she came face to face with a uncomplete drawing of a father with a child leaning against the railing of the Titanic. She watched Anna with wide eyes, surprised by the skill of the girl. The only thing she could think of was "Woah".

The strawberry blonde shrugged.

"Uhm, yes. I scribble, sometimes." 

But the reply of Elsa came unexpected...

"Show me" She said.

And so she did.

She approached her, taking the sketchbook in her hands. Anna then began to tell the story of each of them, turning the sheet slowly, also telling the place where they had been made.

Elsa leaves Anna spoke without interruption, amazed by her stories.

The drawings were made with a black crayon and the date and the signature of the girl, which consisted of an 'A' with the slightly curled left angle and the right corner that curled to form a sort of slot which replaced the original dash, were placed in each of them. Some of them were still unfinished. Most of the drawings were of people and happy families while the others were of European landscape that Anna had the fortune to visit. They were perfect. Anna had talent. There was no denying.

"They’re beautiful. Really, they are wonderful." She said when Anna stopped talking. 

Anna blushed, giving a nod.

"The album belonged to my father. He taught me the basics of drawing. At first I was awful at it, mostly because I tended to being distracted with everything. But I love it so much that I never gave it up."  
"Well that’s good, isn’t it?"  
"I guess so. For a while I’ve been drawing in exchange of money. Ten cents each one of them. An affair, don’t you think? They have been very appreciated but that's not why I like it. I love drawing because each picture carries a history and a unique memories within it. Plus it reminds me of my family. It is a way to feel them with me anytime."

In Anna’s eyes were reflected the sadness she felt at that moment, although they were mix with the love and the determination towards her drawings that characterized her being.

"My dream is to continue drawing until my drawings will be successful." Anna said, standing up. "I will continue to travel around the world, I will learn different styles and I will show anyone how a draw can be beautiful and how many emotions it can create."

She smiled and her eyes regained a melancholic note.

"It was the dream of my father.” She continued. "And now it’s mine."

Elsa nodded, overwhelmed by the passion in the words of Anna.

"And what is your dream, Elsa?"

These words struck Elsa as an arrow in the chest.

"My dream?" She asked confused.  
"Yup. You’ve one, right?”

Dream? As a child she dreamed much. That was certain. But the truth is that in her world dreaming was forbidden. No expectations about the future, no choice. Everything was already written for her and every desire had faded long time ago.

"Nobody has ever asked me that."

Or rather, no one had ever given her the opportunity to dream.

"I'm asking it to you now."

Her eyes were so determined to be contagious. Dream? With Anna at her side she could do that.

"I… I want to run away and be an artist and live in an attic. " She said all of a breath.  
"For real? It doesn’t seem you have so much experience with attics. You wouldn’t resist more than two days without hot water and caviar."  
"I'm lucky then because I hate caviar. And I hate when others people tell me what I should and shouldn’t dream about. Everyone expects me to be a delicate lady, but I’m not like that. I'm strong, I'm strong like a horse! I will no longer be a beautiful ornament, I’m here to do something. I'm tired of the inertia of my life and I'm sick of feeling like I am in a crowded room where I scream my lungs and no one notices it."

The tone of her voice was getting stronger and more decisive. Saying that out loud was liberating as she never would have believed it was possible.

"There's something in me Anna, it’s like an inner force. I feel it. I don’t know what it is, I don’t know if I should be a painter, a sculptor or maybe a dancer! Maybe I could even become an actor! But for me it’s enough just to go away and live, live my life as I am doing with you now. And it would be enough."

Anna put a hand on her shoulder and with the most affectionate tone that the other girl had ever heard, she said: 

"You can do it Elsa, just don’t stop believing."

With a bit of courage that she didn’t believe to have, Elsa spoke again.

"Promise me, Anna, even if they will remain just words."  
"I promise you. We'll travel the world together. We can go to Germany to drink beer. And go to see the fjords in Norway."  
"And to Paris for the Eiffel Tower!"  
"Yes, Paris. The city of love." Anna said dreamily. "Then we could go to the amusement park together and eat chocolate until we burst!"  
"And don’t forget the roller coaster!" The blonde interrupted her.  
"Of course not. We will make the tour of all the rides until we collapse!"  
"Sounds like a plan."

They smiled. But before they could even take a breath and continue talking, the sky welcomed them with raindrops.

"Rain?! Damn! Couldn’t it wait a bit?"

The rain began to fall more wildly in reply

The strawberry blonde girl cursed under her breath. However Elsa heard that and she started laughing. Taking a few steps forward, she took Anna's hand. 

"Let’s go indoors, quick!"

She was Elsa’s turn to drag her around. They ran in the stormy rain laughing, slipping occasionally and holding each other. It took a few minutes to get to the first class covered deck but when they arrived, it was too late.

"We’re soaked!" Elsa snapped, still laughing. 

But Anna had no intention of allowing the rain to ruin their day.

"Take off your shoes." Anna said and Elsa looked at her as if she was crazy.

Maybe she really was, a little crazy.

"Wait, what?" It was the response of the blonde girl.  
"Take off your shoes, come on!"

It seemed a strange request, but she listened to her anyway. She took them off and Anna do the same. Their socks were even more wet than their clothes.

"What now?" 

Holding her shoes in hand, she glanced at Elsa.

"Now run!"

Holding both her hands, they started an exciting but scary - especially for Elsa - race down the hall. Then they stopped suddenly, letting the socks slipping on the wood.

This was for sure the craziest thing Elsa had ever done!

When they slipping ended, Elsa opened her eyes. She couldn’t remember when she had closed them and was surprise to find herself miraculously still standing.

"You're crazy!" She squealed toward her. Anna laughed.   
"Wanna do it again, princess?" She winked. 

How could a person be so adorable?

"Let's do it." She said. Her eyes were sparkling like a child in front of her favorite toy.

Actually she felt exactly like that. A little girl who was given the permission to play and a chance to dream. She looked at the world with new eyes, Anna’s eyes, and even a slide on the floor seemed the best thing ever. She was so happy.

They repeated the same thing for one, two, three times more, until their legs began to throb. The rain around them kept the rhythm of their movements with its ticking on the ship.

The emptiness of Elsa’s heart was starting to fade. Every little gesture, every word of Anna, every adventure, was filling that space, replacing it with joy. She kept that new sensation secretly hidden in a corner of her heart. So if one day she had found herself by the side of a ship again, ready to jump, she would have remembered those moments and she would have found the hope that Anna has given her. She was that after all. For her Anna was hope.

But as the rain stopped, their time come to an end and reality came over her too soon.

The two girls were holding hands and were preparing for another run when a very familiar voice came from behind them, making Elsa’s blood run cold.

"Elsa? What… What are you..?"

Everything fell back on her in an instant.

"Oh no. Mom."

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Hi everyone! This fanfiction is the translation of the Italian FF: "Titanic - Il cuore dell'oceano (TCO)" published on EFP, written by me, Hendy .  
> I had already announced on Tumblr that I had found someone who could translate it to English and, as promised, here it is! The translation was done by my coworker GK.
> 
> We are both ITALIAN so please, feel free to give us some advices to improve our language and our writing style.
> 
> Warning:  
> \- Updates will be posted once a month on this date (We will base on Italian time). We know that it's a hassle, but the FF has yet to be completed and although we are well advanced with the translation there are still many things that we have to do. We will take it easy, but we won't miss the monthly date.  
> \- Early dialogues will be very similar to those of Titanic. Some of the quotes will be exactly the same ones, with little nuances, because there are things that can't be changed in my opinion, for example, the story of the Titanic and the necklace, obviously.   
> \- The length of the chapters, as we go on with the story, will range between 2.500/3.500 words with a few exceptions. 
> 
> I started publishing it in May of 2014 and the writing style has improved during these months, so I would ask you to be patient in the early chapters.  
> I can assure you that from the third chapter, things will change for the better!
> 
> This story is also published on FF.net with the same regularity.
> 
> Tumblr contact: bibinohendy


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